Not One Smoker Has Ever Been Accused of Suicide
By Edward O’Dwyer
I’m convinced of it, but of course I know how it looks,
the oven, the gas, the history of clinical depression.
Incontrovertible evidence shows she’d left her husband,
taken their kids to London to live in a flat once lived in
by W.B. Yeats. But cigarette packets come with
the clear warning ‘Smoking Kills’, and yet
not one smoker has ever been accused of suicide.
Read New Poetry
Featured Writing
Recent Works
The latest poetry, fiction, essays, art and reviews from Verity La.
The Stone Hookers (Carol Major)
Two years before I ever heard about stone hookers stealing a place away, my mother and I had already been…
In the Hills, On the Shore (Patricia Russo)
In the hills overlooking the sea, she is chopping and stirring. She sends a message in the wind: In half…
Letter to a Reader (Mark Mordue)
Hey You, Can you feel me there – with you still? Way back when. Some presence in your imagining? Or…
Dali and the Department of War (Tim Slade)
A metal beak opens: rewriting history, hairpin maneuvers of flight, sparrows nest peacefully inside a dead motor. The sparrows work,…
WINGSPAN: A Festschrift for Robert Adamson
Almost Once Devin Johnston The moment you died, the day turned sideways, no longer moving in any direction, the winter…
The Mayoral Robes (Mark O’Flynn)
When the homemade pipe bomb detonated outside the Council chambers one night shattering the glazed double doors and the windscreens…
Featured Writing
Recent Works
The latest poetry, fiction, essays, art and reviews from Verity La.
The Stone Hookers (Carol Major)
Two years before I ever heard about stone hookers stealing a place away, my mother and I had already been…
In the Hills, On the Shore (Patricia Russo)
In the hills overlooking the sea, she is chopping and stirring. She sends a message in the wind: In half…
Letter to a Reader (Mark Mordue)
Hey You, Can you feel me there – with you still? Way back when. Some presence in your imagining? Or…
Drawing on the Land: Garigal Country (Michael Glasheen)
Visual Arts
See All
Artwork, illustration and visual storytelling.
Back to You (Es Foong)
Colony Collapse (Ian Gibbins)
Leakage (Ian Gibbins)
UNpersoned Podcast
Tune in to the UNpersoned Podcast where managing editor Michele Seminara unpacks what's happening in the arts and literary scenes with guests from Australia and around the world.
The Vault
Fiction, poetry, essays, and criticism published in Verity La since 2010.
An archive of writing committed to freedom of expression and resistance to ideological conformity.
Explore our Archives
We All Have Our Stories to Tell: DIVING INTO GLASS by Caro Llewellyn reviewed by Samantha ConnorReview by Samantha Connor Edited by Robyn Cadwallader George Orwell once famously said, ‘Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful’. It’s why I read Diving into ... Read More
Professional Dreamers (Gemma White)10 professional dreamers do not show their ideas to just anyone no professional dreamers do not boast of their plans to unbelievers professional dreamers put on their black skirts and ... Read More
UNpersoned Podcast
Tune in to the UNpersoned Podcast where managing editor Michele Seminara unpacks what's happening in the arts and literary scenes with guests from Australia and around the world.
Watch interviews and social commentary from the Vault.
The Vault
Fiction, poetry, essays, and criticism published in Verity La since 2010.
An archive of writing committed to freedom of expression and resistance to ideological conformity.
These Hills Are My Ribs (Niko Boskovic)Going Through These Motions Doesn’t Do Us Any Good, So Let’s Change the Teacher Victimization may be the most overthought term used to describe my people. But what do you ... Read More
To Miscarry a Moon (Ojo Taiye)ELEGY FOR CLAUDIA PATRICIA GOMEZ GONZALEZ* i- every poem i write is about the same grief: how ordinary it is to want the American dream. i don’t know what Gomez ... Read More
Verity La Press
Verity La Press
Selected titles from our authors.
Visit Our Bookshop
About Verity La Journal
Verity La Journal is an independent international literary journal publishing fiction, poetry, visual arts, essays and cultural commentary.
Join our mailing list to get email updates.
Subscribe now
About Verity La Journal
Verity La Journal is an independent international literary journal publishing fiction, poetry, visual arts, essays and cultural commentary. Join our mailing list to get email updates.