Roppotucha Greenberg

  On the Proper Use of Mosquitoes  Roppotucha Greenberg (Originally published in TwistinTime Mag)                They won’t let me sleep. My father, a halo of insects around his head, is singing of Robbie Burns’ heart that’s apparently ‘in the highlands a-following a deer’, in Russian first, then in English. Drink always made him jolly, and it earned him our neighbours’ respect (before they met him they’d thought Jews didn’t drink). The night is silly, all soft grey light and drunk  Zglevian  songs. The insects buzz knowingly; he will be theirs soon. Should I warn him?  I could say: ‘Avoid, cancerogenic foods’, ‘Don’t smoke forty cigarettes a day’; ‘When they bring in free-trade try to make money slowly to avoid stress’. But will that scare him? I am the child He loved; I am the Girl from Earth; I am an emissary from the future. My knowledge is His undoing. In my night dress, my hair messed...

There is a longer creature-based work, which can only come out if people read it as it is forming itself. In that way it's like an alien caterpillar] The excerpts do not necessarily come in order. Comments welcome Soyla liked how the old man from the tree family explained things to her: we are not really that small Solya, just far away. She didn’t know if it made her ashamed, worried, or if it made it all a bit easier. Aside from supplying them with fresh scraps of Ool’s letters there was little she could do, and meanwhile, for the time being, things seemed fine. She wished they weren’t so small, but then again if the giants were passing this way, they would find her very small, and she was all right. The giants were not seen in this part of the Thicket for quite some time. There were a lot of things that were not seen. And maybe it was the opposite from the tree family. If they weren’t small but far away, maybe the giants, and the rhinos, and the magnificent star-toads were no...

So here's another segment from the WIP creature book. Thank you for reading. “Ool, are you awake?” “I think so. Do they always talk inside your wardrobes at night?” “Yes. Always” “Then I am awake.’ “You scared?” “It’s been a month, hasn’t it?” “We were scared a lot, once. It was not nice. I want to do nice things for you? Water?” “Thanks, I drank so much coffee, I don’t know what I am anymore.” “Try it, it’s good for when you are really scared. The taste is a bit rubbish otherwise.” Ool looked into the tin cup. The water smelled of the lake. In his hand, the water moved a bit, like the lake going in and out of the sand on the shore. It was very dark in her room, so he couldn’t see him, but he knew a reflected Ool was staring at him. He has not changed his ways. He has not found out what was expected of him, and the consequences, would be bad. The reflected Ool shook in the dark. He took a sip, and it was like diving in. Fresh water sea-weed, fresh-water fi...

There is a longer creature-based work, which can only come out if people read it as it is forming itself. In that way it's like an alien caterpillar] The excerpts do not necessarily come in order. Comments welcome.  Ool sat at the bar and ordered a martini. He wouldn’t normally do that. Order that is, instead of steaking and sit in plain view instead of lurking between the legs of the bar stools. But the server felt different. She wiped the bar with a cloth; served him his drink: ice-cold, human, and Ool could reach the bar fine enough if he stood on the stool. He placed his long face on the counter and watched the server through the clear glass.   “Do you have money?” the server asked in a voice that was like the rustle of leaves back in the Thicket. “Yes. But thank you for asking”. He paid for the drink and watched her move from the bar to the till, from the till to the door of the kitchen. She was graceful and dignified, and every few beats she seemed to vanish....

Like the other creature books , this one is a stand-alone collection, though it has all sorts of secret links to the stories in the other two. This book does not feature advice, and has a bunch of tiny stories instead. It is about the end of the summer, the reasons people might leave one place and go to another place, and about journeys long and short.  It's available on Amazon as a paperback and an e-book .  Amazon UK links: paperback ; e-book Review snippets:  " The combination of word choice, unparalleled imagination, unexpected yet just right structure and form of the writing checks every possible box for me. And the delightfully endearing drawings are the icing on top of the cake" (Helen Whistberry) " There are many stories, one great story, and no story at all. A tender and indefinable work of art and language that may well leave you stranded in a fairy circle you have no desire to leave." (Cassondra Windwalker) " A su...

Creatures Give Advice Agian and it's warmer now  was out on 21 June. It's all about summer. It was my way of keeping a bit of the summer, so really it's a lot like jam. Also it has an index, that's sort of like a poem, even though it is also an index. It was launched on 31 August, amid much merriment. The good people of Twitter contributed the music: Bohemian Rhapsody played on a fairground organ (contributed by Marsha Adams (@marshawritesit) And this was my response And then Maureen Docherty (@mordoc1) put this one on: Response: Happiness is a good thing to have at a launch, so this song was great to listen to (with thanks to Tim Warren @fFredTweetzsche) And the response was: Next came this piece from Sarah Allen Reed (@SarahAllenReed)  . It's not for the faint-hearted, but Creatures are brave (there used to be secret concerts in the Thicket that they used to sneak into, back when humans came in and out. So her...

Visit  Allotment 1  to see where Filigree might be hiding. 

Behold another creature from  Allotment 1  

We, of the Secret Theatre Society, are planning to 'stage' fabulous plays on Twitter We will gather every second Sunday of the month at 5pm GMT and play until around 9pm GMT on Monday. The play will be chosen by a public poll beforehand and announced on Twitter. This week's play is Twelfth Night. To play use use two hashtags in your tweet, one for the game (#secthesoc) and one for the character E.g. #Viola: Meh. Illyria looks so boring. #secthesoc   (Except you will probably be a bit more creative than that!) Also you can reply to another person's tweet, creating a dialogue.  Combo tweets are welcome as long as they are OK with the hosts of the other hashtags. Gifs, pictures, and other non-verbal responses to the theme are also OK.  Our next gathering is on 13 October. Join us. Let's do great things!

This is an important creature, recently spotted by Tamsin S. Head over to  Allotment 1   to see him in the wild.

Note: This one is obviously an   Allotment 1  creature. 

Note: And if you're wondering where you can try to catch them, head over to  Allotment 1

                                     Note: This specimen can be found in  Allotment 1

They said it wasn’t safe The water in the lake was black, even on sunny days, and there were devils. They are different from fish: if the poison spreads, they can dive to the bottom and hide, or they can wrap their belongings in bits of cloth and seaweed, dig into the earth and move to a safer country. But on that day, they floated close to the surface, and Natasha and I floated above them on big logs. There must have been a sawmill nearby, because there was a hoard of logs just where the river entered the lake. We ferried the sun on our backs across the dark water. My dog’s head was like a seal’s; she panted and chewed on small fish. Natasha’s log drifted beside me, and we talked slowly the way you do in water. Our bellies were hidden by the warm logs, so to the devils we looked like tree creatures with splashing legs. They didn’t mind us. In June, they lure particles of light and gather them in old cans. I let go of the log and dove in, and their gossiping was...

So a long time ago, long before Creatures gave advice again , but when it had already become warmer, I asked the good humans of the writerly world: 'What do you think this is?' I got many wonderful responses. But Elizabeth who lives on Twitter and who is known as @bookwyrm37  wrote this poem Monday, we wash the pancakes Tuesday, we cook the laundry  No, wait  Wednesday, we cake the washpan Thursday, we launder the cook Oh bother Friday, soapcakes float in midair Saturday, we float too! Help Sunday, Mother unravels a sock to tether us like panbubbles And well, what more is there to say?

You have a bike but  You can’t live in a bike,  You crank up your saddle, but it’s no property ladder.  I’m freewheeling with worry, for  You dangle too close to the traffic,  And the puddles leap into your pockets.  You swaddle puddles all day, full of diesel and pink-blown blossoms.  But you plan to sell tea.  Victims of frozen rain  Will get served at bus-stops, hard-shoulders.  Cups of guerrilla tea  You’ll deliver and make good money.  At night, you say, starlight will squeeze through the spokes,  Or you’ll spin it till raindrops scatter  And, reflecting the city lights, turn into fireworks  And they’ll gather to see the marvel around your spin-sleeping form.   By @Roppotucha Greenberg Originally published Hand to Mouth a Zine by Kissing Dynamite Poetry https://www.kissingdynamitepoetry.com/uploads/1/1/8/5/11859462/hand_to_mouth_zine.pdf

There is a new allotment on grassy hill . It's for creatures meant to help writers with their projects on their journey towards publication. For now we have one inhabitant, but we'd like more. Please get in touch if you feel like you'd like the creatures' help.                                                                                             Book  (and creatures) by Roppotucha                               Photo (and flowers)   by Tamsin S. @teabeesea

Allotment 1  is expanding beyond Steve and Tamsin's tree.

Mallow dwells in Steve and Tamsin's tree  Allotment 1                                                                                           Book  (and creatures) by Roppotucha                                                                                      Photo (and flowers) by Tamsin S. @teabeesea

Allotment 1 , also known as  Steve and Tamsin's tree also harbours Cloverly.