Nina

Female | 20s | under 3 minutes
Starts on page 11

EXTRACT: A sleepless night/Staring at his clothes and books/The corduroy kitty-cat/ I made it for him when he was born./ I have to get out - of the flat/ Anywhere - hardly aware - city-wide/ The streets outside -/ Red-eyed - preoccupied -/ My head - aching/ Breaking -/ (Pause.) But once outside,/ I notice things/ I've never seen before:/ Plants springing from shrapnel cracks/ In apartment blocks./ A bunch of paper marigolds in a window./ And the cry of the kerosene-seller,/ Rising on the wind . . .

Nina

Female | 20s | under 3 minutes
Starts on page 42

EXTRACT: One evening,/As the last light of day fades,/Splashes over glass-emptied windows,/I go for a walk/ And find myself/ In the grey outskirts of the town;/ A place I've never been before./ It's a strange and eerie suburb/ Of old women with silent, skull-like faces/ And skinny-ribbed children with malformed limbs./Even the sunflower sky is anaemic out here/Where twilight pours, not vibrant hues,/But grit and smog/ Over burnt-out buildings, And ravenous dogs jump the darkness/ To land on rats/Round with blood and muscle.