Afternoon, all,
Thanks for sticking by us during July. The weather’s been all over the place and so have our personal committments. Individually, work has been coming in. We’ve got some exciting personal projects that we’ll be announcing in due course. Because, after all, to build this communications agency we need an expansive and impressive portfolio which is a neverending process. But we’re still going strong, seeking out a web designer to make our website dreams come true and setting our goals for the next six months. We thought we’d share a piece we love called “Smoke.” We shared it on our Patreon as our first quartlery editorial piece. If you like it and want to see more of our exclusive pieces before we release them, sign up and show some support! We understand the pandemic has been tough on a lot of us, so there’s no pressure. Just giving us feedback and showing love in any way is enough for us.
Shiromi’s take on the word “smoke” looked like a script between two entities which is pretty cool:
Smoke: what you doing?
Air: not much today, yourself?
Smoke: I don’t know really. I don’t know how much longer I’m gonna last, so we’ll see.
Air: oh damn, how you feeling about that?
Smoke: oh,
[looks around but body disperses more into the air from the movement of looking to the left]
You know, it’s fine. It’s always cool. No point conserving what I can’t give right?
It’s as it’s meant to be, it’s how I need to be. It’s always fine.
Air: doesn’t sound fine… to me…
Smoke: and that’s okay, I don’t have the energy for your opinion anyway. No, really, I don’t. I don’t have any intentions - just this conversation.
Air: cool, I’ll be seeing you then?
Smoke: whenever - sure. I’ll be back.
[Smoke stops speaking with Air. Air’s presence retreats. Smoke is centre view now, with lingering tethers that are still quite connected and happily stable from it’s core]
Smoke: Hmm
[internal thoughts] [looks upward to the ceiling]
I know I came from a steak. Nice to be back. Nice to be around again. I’ve liked how often I’ve been able to be back lately - I guess his need to light a candle is to thank. Light a candle! It will cleans the energy in the room! WOW! I am cleansed!
No. You aren’t, but I am here. And I let you believe you are. I love it when someone burns sage - when they see me they know something is happening. But when they blow out the candle, they know something is ending. I love it though. This dichotomous purpose which bothers Air, so rightly so. Fuck Air. Dumb Fuck. Always doing nothing. Just vast and taking up space. Getting mad at me cutting through their void. It’s as though Air is a standard skier, going it’s steady path and I’m the snowboarder, cutting and zipping through it’s runs however I want - whenever I want. That’s our relationship.
I guess, in some sense it’s nice that Air lets me do as I need. I’ll hand that to him. But God does he preach. Could at least make me a coffee before he starts. Oh coffee, how beautiful I look as I come off you. I love how you allow me to carry your scent along the room too, flooding the nasal pores of anyone I meet. Unless it’s a dog - too strong for them. I wish I spent more time with coffee. He and I would make a great item. As soon as I meet him I’ve got to leave him. I wonder if he wants me to stay a little longer - I don’t enjoy that though. That usually ends up with me converting. Plastic lids got your boy beaten down by condensation. Don’t worry I’m not here to save the planet.
Just here to move. To see what wants me enough to make me. To see who I’ll worry, who I’ll calm and who I’ll capture today. As long as it’s not Air again. Fucking nerd, fuckin square.
I was inspired by the elusiveness of “smoke,” too:
Smoking the boys out, like lizards emerging from a tunnel, like passing a herb wrapped in a effigy of intent around a circle, like travelling around a group and floating away, like being a dancer like being alive like being alive even when I bring a death of something
Smoke like a warning, smoke like not a warning, you know like smoke like what’s brother cooking out there or what’s my great great grandmother trying to tell me from the mountainside, more like smoke like an alert that fills up the nose and wraps around the moss covered sticks in my pocket that i’ll look at in a pondering moment and wonder how to ignite a spark, like smoke that comes from a fixed source maybe and decided to strip tease the atmosphere
Smoke like I carry around burning wood and wave it into the corner of my room hoping it’ll slide up the wall and fracture into new pathways to cleanse the space, or smoke like a danger that didn’t come from a waving incense, smoke like the trees and the sun wrestled with the oxygen and something happened beyond my comprehension, but that’s the beauty of nature i guess, the same thing can happen a thousand times over and it’ll still be the most original piece of art I’ve ever had the pleasure to happen upon
Smoke like it’s me like I’m the smoke like the smoke is like the movement of my fingers writing it out and smoke like the tip of my toes smouldering for almost three decades now, smoke like when the flames get sucked into nothingness and then a string of grey is pulled out before branching outwards in an attempt to cling onto everything but be owned by nothing, sometimes like smoke like our actions that permeate the future we colour with our decisions and intent
Smoke like the thing that branched out and filled up my fathers lungs from the inside, smoke like he was barbequed in reverse, smoke like I wonder if his insides would have had a distinct taste should I have chosen to be a cannibal, smoke like what carries the dead into the water and gently floats back to the land to cling into the fibers of your clothes as a reminder that nothing is ever really dead forever nothing is ever really dead,
Smoke like something unpunctuated and defies boundaries yet sets the protective boundary of a home, a doorway, a circle, but smoke like a question of what a full stop is anyway, smoke like a comma or a parentheses, smoke like asking how you would use a parentheses anyway,
Smoke like the comfort of knowing you’re visible onto for a short amount of time but your presence is enough to spark a personal revolution of say, growth maybe, smoke like what happens when you’re able to see something one with the wind like I can see the wind now it shifts from black to grey to white all at once, smoke like definitely not singular, like tendrils wrapped around each other infinitely extending towards the sky,
Smoke like it wants to be with the sun again, smoke like tiny little eclipses coming out of my first lovers mouth puckered up like fish kisses head tilted towards the ceiling saying “like this, turn your mouth into an o,” so I turned my mouth into the sun and pushed out small transient hurricanes from the controlled source and watched them grow larger until they disappeared, like a message we can understand but can’t really understand, smoke like a notification saying there are predators on the loose, or smoke like an olive branch cooked over an open fire turning hunted meat around
Smoke like the confusion of the dust setting around hooves ground to a halt and the ashen tobacco breathing its last breath or smoke like the mutable emotions, in disarray, to decipher what the fuck i’m talking about anyway, or smoke like the thing that obscures vision making it more tantalising and seductive, smoke that clouds judgement or smoke like the
What comes up for you when you think of the word “smoke?” We’d love to hear from you.
Some personal things we’ve been working on: Shiromi has taken on a lot of web development under her belt to work with a professional designer whilst also helping some companies with their branding. She’s also writing a book on guilt. More excitingly though, she’s taken up running again and is absolutely rinsing Pokemon sword. I will be battling her as soon as I can.
I’ve been helping several startup brands develop their website copy and maintain their SEO rhythm. I’ve also taken on a researcher role in which I collect the stories from queer Muslims for an upcoming TV show. But the most important thing of all: I’m saving Hyrule from Calamity Ganon on my Switch.
See you next month, or if you follow us anywhere else, see you much much sooner,
Shirine from the FFW team x