The Ministry of Small Truths

Case File #001:

Report on interacting with fruit in an autumnal morning hinita on a wooden floor in Halifax. Observation of a moment of time in which the ordinary and every day turns extraordinarily luminous.

*(Hinata: a spot exposed to sunlight)

Sit in it

Put your apple under the spotlight

Watch it turn to glass before your VERY EYES

Examine it very quietly and closely

Listen

Kiss it

Lick it like a sugar dummy at the seaside

Dip it in chocolate and sprinkles

Put it to your ear after you bite

Hear it crackle forever

Feel the inside of your cheeks bleed

Read its veins

A haiku in a fortune teller’s teacup

Hold a banana to your ear

Tadaaaa

a cordless phone

Talk to your sister

Tell her you've  missed her

The delicious gold of October

Cast a beastly shadow with your hands on the wooden floor

A huff and puff woolf knock knock knocks at the door

Squint one eye to block the light

Hold the skeleton of a promenade parasol in your spindly fingers if you’re so inclined

Feel both worlds exist at the exact same

Words by Toria Garbutt

Line drawing of the map of Illinois, with its borders outlined.
Illustration of a vintage payphone, a sliced apple with the text "I see you too in the delicious gold of October," disembodied lips, a kiwi, and a sheep with a black ball on a yellow background.

Artwork by Eimear Kavanagh

The Ministry of Small Truths

Case File #002:

Report on the interaction between smoke from a match stick and a shaft of light through a living room window in Halifax on a winter morning.

white linear flower head design.

A Floating Cauldron

Rotates mid air 

An astonishing hologram 

You can 

Walk through or around it

Dare to dip your hand in 

Wear it like a lace glove

An Intricate trickster 

A wispy disc 

A thin pool of magic 

Exists

Dance in it 

Wear it like a shawl 

Wear it like a stole

Wear it like a shrug 

Exquisite 

Leave your scent in its silky lining 

Your fingerprints in utero 

Your molluscs in a shell 

A blueprint for a secret code 

Look closely 

Read the lines on her face

The crumples on his pillow

The indentations on his desk 

Blow it like steam from a teacup 

And watch it disappear

Words by Toria Garbutt

A surreal illustration of a woman with a large, intricate hat resembling a seashell, wearing a dark blue dress with white ornate patterns, standing against a dark background with swirling white smoke and a white cloud in the upper right.

Artwork by Eimear Kavanagh