ESSAY text by BRAD PHILLIPS brad phillips is an artist and writer living in toronto, canada. his critically acclaimed book essays and fictions came out in 2019. He is a regular purple contributor. * “But that is what islands are for; they are places where different destinies can meet and intersect in the full isolation of time.” — Lawrence Durrell, Bitter Lemons of Cyprus, 1957. Islands in the stream That is what we are No one in between How can we be wrong — Bee Gees, “Islands in the Stream,” recorded by Kenny Rogers, 1983. * Nothing screams metaphor more than the word “island,” although the word “ocean” is in close competition. Most everything, I think, has the potential to be either an island or its surrounding water. Right now, my mother has cancer. I’d like to pull her from the ocean of anxiety and ill health onto my island…