Snakeskin 297, July 2022
 

Congratulations to George Simmers on another excellent issue, here :)

This month George himself features, alongside Martin Elster and one Felicity Teague, whose sonnet inspired the cover image :D

I always enjoy reading the magazine :)

Best wishes,
Fliss

Great cover, great sonnet!

Well done all!

Cheers,
John

Congratulations, Fliss.

"I am also modest in attire" is great. The entire poem made me smile.

Fliss, your sonnet was a joy to read. Congrats!
And thanks, George, for putting together this splendid issue.

Congratulations, Martin. I missed seeing you were also included in my first reading. Those are three strong poems.

:)

Thanks, John I.; and thanks for your encouragement through the drafting stage ☕️

John R., thanks to you too! I'm happy the poem made you smile :)

Martin, thank you! Congrats again to you and to George.

Best wishes,
Fliss

Enjoyed your sonnet, Felicity, but I'm sorry that you didn't squeeze in one more fact about the pufferfish - if not prepared properly - the poison sac detached - they are deadly - their poison is something like 2000 times deadlier than cyanide. You can only eat them at special restaurants with trained and licensed chefs.

During my Japan days a legendary Kabuki actor (when you make it really big, big, big in Japan you are awarded the title Living National Treasure which this guy had) died after devouring four portions of blowfish and declaring he was immune to the toxin.

It kinda put a damper on my blowfish orgies. The trouble is that the fish is really delicious, and because of the care required it's only served in the best and most expensive restaurants. Whenever I did have it, it was on the company dime. But I never tried blowfish again, and I never became a living national treasure. (I'm not sure they're related.)

Lols.

I'm happy with my sonnet as it is; thanks again to George. I always enjoy reading Snakeskin :D

Edited to add Big Grin.
F.

That’s the fish! In 2019 we visited the Inland Sea and took very fast shinkanshen (sounds like Wisconsin)) trains, and visited markets. In Shimonoseki I took a photo of a grinning fishmonger tickling a blowfish for us until it was huge with air, glaring, and surely angry. Ambivalent about that fishmonger.

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I meant to mention, thanks to John Isbell for the workshopping over on Prole Art Threat, hooray. Thanks also to Phil Wood and Ray Miller. Ray was published in Snakeskin last month, with 'Madness in Three Stages'. I liked that poem a lot; I'm interested in mental health issues :)