Helluva Life

By David Halliday

I am losing my voice. Words. Vocabulary. I am forgetting what things are called. 'Thing' is my go to word. It is not Alzheimer. It is something else. Something worse.
My skin is getting looser. Sometimes I'm afraid that while I'm showering it will slip off and curl around my feet like a wet towel.
My skin is disappearing in flakes. a blizzard in slow motion. There are things growing on my body. I am turning into a tree.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Halliday
• Release date: Jan 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463358757

David Halliday

I have published poems, short stories, plays, art works in reviews and publications across the United States and Canada. I have several published books:murder by Coach House Press. This book is a series of poems and illustrations set up like scenes in a movie, describing the murder, trial, and mob execution of an innocent man. Winner of the 2001 Eppie for poetry.The Black Bird by. The Porcupine’s Quill. This is a book of poems, illustrations and short prose pieces describing the fictional making of the John Huston film, The Maltese Falcon.Making Movies by Press Porcepic. This is a book of long poems, interviews, short fiction pieces about a fictional BBC documentary about a fictional Canadian film maker, Samuel Bremmer and his company of actors and colleagues. It follows his career through the creation of a series of his movies.Church Street is Burning, a book of poems, was a finalist in the 2002 Eppie for poetry.The God of Six Points, published by Double-dragon-ebooks. A man who believes he is a god believes he has murdered one of his subjects.Sleeping Beauty, published by LTD ebooks.com is a murder mystery. A woman lands in a small village where the only escape is to be murdered. Finalist in the 2003 Dream Realm Awards. Winner of the 2004 IP Book Awards.The Hole, published by LTD ebooks is one in a series of cop stories. There are unusual happenings in the quiet suburb of Islington. People have begun to disappear. And they have been disappearing for generations. For the soon to retire Sam Kelly, this is his last case as a detective. All the clues point to a mysterious hole, which appears to have no bottom.In 2007 I was short listed for the C.B.C. Literary Contest in poetry.

Book preview

Helluva Life

by David Halliday

copyright 2020

for Sandra my sister

Losing

I am losing my voice. Words. Vocabulary. I am forgetting what things are called. 'Thing' is my go to word. It is not Alzheimer. It is something else. Something worse.

Skin

My skin is getting looser. Sometimes I'm afraid that while I'm showering it will slip off and curl around my feet like a wet towel.

My skin is disappearing in flakes

a blizzard in slow motion.

There are things growing on my body.

I am turning into a tree.

Bertie

I was standing in the bus shelter when this woman pulling a grocery cart came from across the street and pulled up beside me.

What are you doing here? she asked.

I looked at her. There were rags wrapped around her hands. And she was wearing one of those furry Russian hats. And a bright yellow and orange crossing guard's jacket.

You have to get out, she said.

Excuse me.

This is my shelter. I claimed it last week when Bertie passed on.

This is a bus shelter, I said. It doesn't belong to anyone.

She looked me up and down.

How did you get here? she asked.

I walked.

I mean this country, she said.

My parents landed by airplane.

See. My grandparents came by boat. I was here first. Boat trumps plane.

"I don't think first has anything to do