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.

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  • Threads of Silent Longing (Hasti Abbasi)Threads of Silent Longing (Hasti Abbasi)
    Bahar drinks a glass of water. A soft sensation starts to stir inside her. Still within her regular cycle, yet this time, it feels different. She gets out of bed, ... Read More
  • Into the Woods (Rebecca Stringer)Into the Woods (Rebecca Stringer)
      Rebecca Stringer is an academic and erstwhile photographer and lives on the Otago Penninsula in Dunedin, New Zealand, with her partner and son. Rebecca lectures in Gender Studies at ... 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. 
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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.
  • Fracking (Graham Akhurst)Fracking (Graham Akhurst)
    (edited by Phillip Hall) lured by haunted white space I fill the page with egret bloom with flame tree impart wisdom in lake's reflection nature's metaphor conjures beauty for a ... Read More
  • TRUTH IN THE CAGETRUTH IN THE CAGE
    You can find my whole life in my poems, like a letter to God.  – Mohammad Ali Maleki Verity La and Rochford Street Press are proud to announce the publication of Mohammad ... Read More

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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.

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