Clean

Our lucent teeth spark the rainbow dark.
Here, we do not use words like love.
Instead, we speak with hands that hold as shoulders tussle
the roughhouse rougher.
In the absence of daylight,
we are just two young men,
silent save for giggle and shoe scuff-
we do not rouse suspicion when touching.

from 'Night Orchids'

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In this volume, Scott-Patrick Mitchell propels us into the seething mess of the methamphetamine crisis in Australia today. These poems roil and scratch, exploring the precarious life of addiction and its sleep deprivation. From an unsteady and unsavoury life, we are released into the joy of a recovery made through sheer hard work.

Even in the disintegration, the poet points us towards love and carries tenderness every day in memory. Scott-Patrick Mitchell's decades of spoken- word practice has enabled a fine tuning on the page when, for so many readers, we enter into an alien zone of unknowing.

Shortlisted in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2023 and the Best Book category in the Western Australian Premier's Book Awards 2023.