Pieces of Eight (2020)

Purple Haze

Purple Haze

When I was in primary school
there was a boy who ate paste,
and sometimes chalk.
If the teacher asked for
help to clap the erasers,
he made haste to raise his hand.
I preferred to hand out the worksheets.
In my purple haze, sniffing the mimeograph.


The mimeograph became the most widely used system for mass-producing papers with print on them. The ink it used ended up looking deep blue or purple. The materials also made mimeographed paper have a unique smell. That fragrance came from the machine’s output; the duplicator fluid had methanol and isopropanol in it.