Retort Magazine

Here are three entries of Erica’s from In the District, documenting life in County Tipperary. Erica Van Horn has a remarkable, dry, and moving way of documenting her life and presence in Ireland.
See bottom for link to her highly recommended Living Locally diary. We are extremely pleased to be able to bring you these entries/ excerpts.

In the District pt. 1

Several places locally have signs out front advertising Dental Repairs. These are often houses in the middle of the countryside. I presume there is a workshop in a shed or in a spare room. If the sign reads WHILE U WAIT, there must be a waiting area where the person in need of repair can sit quietly while they wait for their dentures to be fixed. Maybe some people drop off their teeth and return later to collect them. Maybe they have a spare, older set at home or maybe they are happy to spend the day toothless.

I never see one these repair places without thinking of an arranged meeting with elderly friends at a pub some years ago. They wanted to buy us a meal to thank us for something we had done. They thought it would be more special if we ate out somewhere. Mostly, I think the woman was longing to be somewhere other than at her own table for a change. She was longing to eat some food which she had not prepared herself.

The food was the usual sort of out to lunch on a Sunday fare, except of course it was called dinner, not lunch.  It is only myself who would call it lunch.  Here, lunch is dinner, and dinner is tea.  There was some kind of roast meat and roast potatoes and boiled potatoes and mashed potatoes, along with a selection of overcooked vegetables.

While I sat stunned, looking at the enormous mound of food on my plate, the wife nudged me. She wanted to explain why she was removing her teeth and placing them in her handbag. She wanted to explain before the teeth were out of her mouth. She said that the local man who did dental repairs charged too much, so her son had done her repairs for her. He had used Super Glue, which I am sure was never intended to be inside a human mouth. Her son did a thorough job. She was delighted with the repairs and the money saved, even though she now had to take her teeth out before she could eat anything at all.

Continue reading ~ Erica Van Horn – In the District →

Two new poems and three pieces of art – a Retort exclusive by poet, translator & artist Mark Terrill

The Man from Monterey

Bonjour Monsieur Sartre

People who love people who hate other people

often look up and see the woman in the moon.

They think that with the right cameras and mirrors

they might begin to discover who they really are,

perhaps understand the furtive semblance

toward which they cleave in their rented rooms

in the nouvelle régime. People who love people

who hate Sartre might not know that he liked to dine

at Maître Albert, Les Marronniers, Le Balzar

and the Brasserie Demory. Only people who have

actually been there know that the

temperature of the sidewalk is only of significance

when your face is being pressed down against it by

some asshole in a black leather jacket

who thinks he knows the true meaning of freedom.

Continue reading ~ Art & Poetry by Mark Terrill →