Terminations

Author: Graham Foust

Publisher: Flood Editions (2023)

“Reading Terminations is like watching a make-up tutorial in reverse—which is to say, the deconstruction of an art that, on its face, is applied to conceal and therefore beautify what is inherently colored by the decay it daily wears. So it shocks us to see something so seemingly done-up come undone and more shocking (and uncanny and satisfying) still to realize ah, that’s what it looks like under all that bake and contour. How odd. You realize, after you’ve been terminated two or three times by Graham, that there’s no hiding from this, the naked face of language, the dull and perfect void we all inhabit and never, fortunately or unfortunately, will find ourselves grayed-out by. The point is, nevertheless, not ‘to be a goddamned monster,’ about what you see (and deftly don’t) when the makeup comes off and the words bend in heat and light, if you can help it. So help you God.”

—Andrew E. Colarusso