Welcome to the Zachàr Laskewicz Prose Page. Find below links to each of Zachàr's works of prose currently readable online or downloadable as individual .pdf documents. The list below is in alphabetical order by title, and the list to the right is in order of date, the newest poems appearing at the top.
0802-EMP
1113-PLP
1.
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ITS FORAGING DAY for Alik and the orphans he’s been responsible for looking after since the war began. Positioned on a cliff outside the region’s capital, the children are set with the task of finding five ingredients to perform the ‘Blessing of the Pot’ ceremony, and this story concerns a day in the life of Alik and his orphans. Although told in a deeply pessimistic way, coloured by dangers of genetic warfare, all of its characters are doing one thing and one thing alone: attempting to survive. Those stupid enough to remain in the damaged cities after they were bombed abuse their power; stupidity usually makes inappropriate use of any form of power and it’s no less true at Saint-Sigrit, the very last place you’d like to see your children grow up in. Poor Little Puddy, a retarded but spritely girl who barely has the ability to speak, is set to receive her first Blessing after the children return from their foraging. New to the orphanage, she’s attached herself to Alik and Alik is suffering because of what she brings back about Sister Zarandiet who brought the children hope soon after the war began but was promptly put to death by her opposing sisters who were deeply threatened by introducing ideas such as a ‘hope’ and ‘us against them’ to the children. What use were such ideas to the children anyway; this is a world where staying alive another day is in itself a success. So the children set out into the plains and the wood separating the city from the warehouse, factory and the deep cess-pit dug into the cliff wall which together form the orphanage. In search of the five ingredients for the stew, Poor Little Puddy and probably not until the moment that she is thrown into pot will she realise that her blessing is a euphemism for sacrifice and that thanks to her, the orphans will survive another day; the question is – does Alik know and can he condone it? The Saint-Sigrid Orphanage, lauded over by the insane paedophile Father Veledis and his mentally-deficient servant Gidish of indeterminate age and who is considered to have divine powers because of her unique ability to smile, becomes a model of warning for a world still falling victim to sexual repression and still overcome by greed and lust for power; one that still uses chemical weapons and takes dangerous risks to the environment experimenting with genetically-modified crops.
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Last modified: 18 May 2013
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