Books

TWO COINS

Forthcoming

“The girl with keyboard ink on her hands walks through the city, trailing words from her fingers in streaks across the brick walls.

The petals speak soft songs, teaching me the language of the river. Words in pink and pink-turned-brown, floating up from the lyril flowers that cover the riverbed; words in the creases formed when a merchant ship cuts its oil-lined path across the surface; words in the fragments left by scavenger birds hungry enough to eat anything. I hear the lyrics on my chalk-white skin, in my dark hair and across the folds of my fish-nibbled dress.”

A reprint of the short story, originally published in Electric Velocipede, issue 15/16, as a limited edition, handbound miniature book by Papaveria Press.

The book is fabric and coins, awaiting construction. I talk about the acquisition of those items.

Reviews:

“Short and sweet, [Two Coins] emphasizes how the bond between sisters is not one easily broken. MacFarlane has a way with words, and I love how prose and verse seem to mingle in this short work. Recommended.”
- Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, The Fix

“Alex Dally MacFarlane gives us a lyrical little piece with alternating characters and brings them together effectively.”
- Sam Tomaino, SFRevu

“I liked it for the repeated use of a phrase to start every other paragraph. “The girl with keyboard ink on her hands” … Keyboard ink. That gets on a person’s hands. I love the sound of that and the image it brings to mind. Ink-stained wretches in a computer age. Even without understanding anything else, I’m a fan.”
- Rat’s Reading