Ex-Cetera

EX-CETERA presents an intense and intimate portrait of a romantic relationship, charting its chaotic course from the early days of heady, all-consuming young love, through to the inevitable break-up.

Relaying the sweet, shocking, and sad ephemera collected from the wreckage by the speaker of these poems, here is a book of opposites. Toxicity and tenderness intertwine. Passion struggles against psychotic illness. Happiness sits alongside violence. Fun and laughter are found among fear and mental breakdowns. The roles of 'victim' and 'saviour' become interchangeable. Carer turns abuser. Hope dwindles to despair.

Exploring themes of severe mental illness, suicidality, self-harm, domestic abuse, and addiction, EX-CETERA immortalises the minutiae of one explosive love in savage detail and invites the reader to decide how far is too far when all you want is to be loved.