Wanting
‘Got any change?’ the beggar says.
I type in my pin number at the cash point and feel Damon’s lips on the back of my neck. The machine displays amounts I can withdraw and Damon slides his hand under my t-shirt. I push the button to request the maximum.
‘Couldn’t spare any change?’
The beggar sits on cardboard. Damon’s belly against my lower-back.
The machine gives me the money and Damon and I go inside the shop for supplies. I pay and step outside.
‘A bit of change?’
By Andy West.
The Wandering Path: a Review of Seed by Joanna Walsh
Engagement with the natural world is a key part of Seed, which is at once slightly odd and highly relevant. We engage with raw nature less than we used to, especially those of us who grew up before the internet. Also, this is a digital book, disembodied, not an object made of natural materials that can be touched, smelled, and experienced directly through the senses. So while there seems to be a certain nostalgia for the pre-digital world, it is paradoxically expressed in a shiny, postlapsarian, Google-labbed form.
Julian Hanna reviews Seed by Joanna Walsh.