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MARTIN MALONE

Born in County Durham, Martin Malone now lives in Scotland.


He has published two poetry collections: ‘The Waiting
Hillside’ (Templar, 2011) and ‘Cur’ (Shoestring, 2015). His third
collection, ‘The Unreturning’ will be published in 2018.

From The Unreturning

31. MOOC

According to them as knows, every letter is negotiable. What, then, is


massive about ‘brisk’ fighting or ‘stern’ opposition: 100, 1,000,
10,000? You can smell the frontline long before you see it and open is
out where you don’t want to be, lest you supply that stench for the
living. Online, for sure, is where we’re at, three of ’em: front; support;
and reserve, a wet populous dyke stretching from Flanders to the
Somme. Course is orders and, orders is orders, as in ‘there is no other
course open to us but to fight it out’, so we attack at first light, where
the line is weakest and wastage low. Any questions? Yes you. ‘Begging
your pardon, Sir, what have we learned from this?’

38. Cold Call

So let us consider the maths. By the age of 92, the Second World War
widow honoring a father’s Gallipoli, has shifted around 30,000
poppies for the Legion over a period of 76 years. Now divide that by
ten and arrive at the approximate number of mailings in a twelve-
month period. Multiply that by the number of years since a nation
outsourced its kindness then throw in the daily cold calls. Of the
charities sampled 99 possessed her details, 70 of which had got them
from third parties, 21 ‘assumed’ permission to share based upon her
not opting out. Everyone maximizing data. Everyone just getting on.
And she did leave a number: Please phone 999 elderly lady gone over
cliff.

-23- bare ffiiCtion magazine

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