Who is Alice?

Janis Freegard

Excerpted from The Continuing Adventures of Alice Spider, available from Anomalous Press

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Alice Alice (who the fuck is Alice?) knows exactly who she is. She is Alice Spider, a weaver of words, a weaver of life. She spins herself a safe and cosy little home. She spins herself a wild, wild life. Alice Spider has many tattoos and a ring through her beautiful nose.

Who are you little Alice? Who are you now? And she says I am Alice Spider. I am Alice Pain.

Alice has a black cloak studded with real stars that keeps the world out. She has no fear, that Alice-in-the-cloak. Her wicked lipstick smile grins out from behind her black hood; her wicked eyes twinkle. She is hip and groove and totally cool. And she is Alice. As always.

I am Alice the Weaver, Alice the Webster, Alice the Spinner of Lives, of Lines, of Lies. I am Alice. Alice Spider.

And Alice has half a bottle of Chardonnay still undrunk (and we all know Alice likes a little drink now and then) and Alice has half a packet of cigarettes still unsmoked (and we all know Alice likes a smoke now and then) and Alice has a knife in the kitchen still unused (and we all know Alice Likes Blood.)

Alice is Alice is Alice. And she is truly alive.

When there are no more censors, when there are no more limits, only then will there be Alice on the page, as she is spoke. Only the Spider waiting in her web. Alice striking; Alice devouring the stuck, struggling fly. Alice strikes again. No regrets.

Oh baby, you are all mine. Alice the Vixen. Alice Desired.

Janis Freegard is the author of the poetry collection Kingdom Animalia: the Escapades of Linnaeus (Auckland University Press, 2011) and co-author of AUP New Poets 3 (2008). She was born in South Shields, England, and lived in South Africa and Australia before her family settled in New Zealand when she was twelve. She lives in New Zealand’s windy capital city, Wellington, with an historian, a cat, and various spiders. http://janisfreegard.com

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In This Issue

Mani Rao
...Sing to Me
...Monkey Puzzle
Steve Bradbury
translating Ye Mimi
...In the Mountains Near at Hand
Bradley Schmidt
translating Ulrike Almut Sandig
...was the table, was the chair
...solar eclipse
...when you're not here
Monika Zobel
...To Begin at Breath
...Monumental
...Der Immigrant sucht die unbenannten Länder
Michael Schorsch
translating Venantius Fortunatus
...from Fortunatus
Sarah Tourjee
...from Ghost
Janis Freegard
...Alice and the Personality Disorder
...Who is Alice
...Alice Waits
Becca Barniskis
...Xavier Box
...Mimi
...X
...M
Liat Berdugo
...Just the Heads
...When Some Things Fail
...All Men Equal
...There Might Have Been Some Mastication
Askold Melnyczuk
...Dad, Poet, 1954 ad nauseum
Laura McCullough
...Help for the Reality Challenged
...That's the Game, Boys
...Bowie My Hair Goddess Grow
Michael Gushue
...Pachinko Mouth, First Turn
...Pachinko Mouth, Second Turn
...A Valediction for When Words Fail
Aaron Crippen
...closing his eyes he
...fresh-stripped of skin
...He Gives You Your Vision
...the moon
...under your foot
Sandra Doller
translating Éric Suchère
...21
...22
Kendra Greene
...from Anatomy of a Museum
Mark Wunderlich
...Prayer in a Time of Sickness
Amber Ginsburg
...Edge