This Way Up
by Penny Boxall
My aim is Australia.
Disregard the obstacles, the fact
that my antipodes is actually
an unlanded Pacific plot; that –
anyway – between me
and Uluru the Earth’s core
pounds like a jealous heart.
I am pulled by my opposite,
determined to meet: get flinging
the matter over my shoulders,
building a slow hill.
I cut into the substandard
cake of soils, rocks, roots
all the way to dinnertime; then abandon
my three-foot depth of ambition.
Unfulfilled, the rain tricks
its way through soil, far-reaching;
infiltrates bedrock and the star
at the heart of the planet;
down until there is no more
˙ssǝuɥɔᴉɹ ǝlqɐuᴉƃɐɯᴉun 'ǝƃnɥ ǝɯos ɟo
ǝɔɹnos ǝɥʇ pǝɹǝʌoɔsᴉp sɐɥ ǝɥ ƃuᴉʞuᴉɥʇ ɹoɟ
uǝʌᴉƃɹoɟ ǝq ʇɥƃᴉɯ ǝɔɐld ʇɐɥʇ oʇ
dɐɯ ou puɐ ʞɔolɟ sᴉɥ ʎq pǝl
ɹǝɯɹɐɟ ǝɥʇ os ;ǝuᴉɯ oʇ ɯɐǝs ɐ sɐ ʇɥƃᴉɹq
pǝǝʍ snᴉoɔᴉuɹǝd ɐ oʇ sǝʇɐlsuɐɹʇ
ʎɹolƃ ƃuᴉuɹoW ˙ɹǝpu∩ uʍop oʇuᴉ uǝᴉlɐ
ƃuᴉpnɹʇxǝ suoᴉlǝpuɐp 'lǝɹɹos 'ǝsɹnd s,pɹǝɥdǝɥs
:ǝɔɐld ǝlqɐʞuᴉɥʇun uɐ oʇ ɔᴉʇoxǝ
sǝʌɐǝl ɟo ƃuᴉɥsᴉɹnolɟ ɐ sǝɹnɾuoɔ
ɥsnq ǝɥʇ oʇuᴉ sʞɹɐds ʇI ˙ʇɐǝɥ
oʇuᴉ ƃuᴉllǝʍ ɐ 'ǝƃɹnsdn
ƃuᴉllᴉʍ ɐ sǝɯoɔǝq ʇᴉ puɐ uʍop
Purchase Gutter 18 via our online store, or visit our Subscribe and Support pages for more information on how to support the magazine!
The best selling issue produced alongside The Freedom Papers in partnership with Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Featuring work from Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, William Letford, Catherine Simpson, Swara Shukla, Hannah Lavery, Vahni Capildeo, Penny Boxall, AC Clarke and many more.
Please note this issue is supplied as a single publication (separately to The Freedom Papers).