I bought some books at the table shared by Magic Helicopter and Publishing Genius. I happened to be there when both Mike Young and Adam Robinson were there and so I was saying my hellos while selecting books in a somewhat discombobulated fashion and after I’d made my purchases someone sitting behind the table handed me If I Falter at the Gallows and instructed me to read the following:

COMIC RELIEF

At the top 
of a dune

in the desert,
a bearded

man appears, only
only to be pushed

in the back
and caused

to tumble don
the dune by

another beared
man.

I laughed and agreed it was funny, but after a moment’s hesitation I put the book down because I’d already made my purchases. I went back to the Razorcake table and at odd times throughout the day the sentence would come back and I’d wish I’d bought the book. In other words, I regretted having faltered. 

The next day I went back and bought the book and have been teasing over the story/poems over the last few weeks. Sometimes reading the epigrammatic sentences over and over again. I’m sure there are other writers who work in this mode but these absurd little vignettes remind me of the comedian Steven Wright, king of the deadpan non sequitur. Highly recommended.