graffiti and the
silence of poets or, ekphrasis for ashley
the way gold flake leaves from tips staging
gender mimetics the things we lost in floods and/or online
a kind (of) mobile space
these reference system scenographies these zeroes and once
your theoretical eyes—
I’m reading everyone but you
we’re checking our stats
you said my memes lack subtlety
(don’t unfollow me now)
what fingers have traditionally accomplished
what refusal now:
uncanny unnatural parodic
an edge—
mostly I say the wrong things
your theory of missing space this place in between:
these digits this code a kind of binary this (kin of) body
heavy with cotton stitched lip through lip these mouths like fabric
we feel for signs through night as if through
picket fields
doppler lines—
the way texts keep coming in we find
orientation, these words
carapace
inscribed regulation and power
are produced within the
woning/situated/universe/
city a home where we were not this kept
not in view___ \ this shut away
from public and from her these modes of production
(feline negation: your theology, not mine)
I am not this where we never
surveillance
mindful
chronic
derive(d)
( it’s more about the way I never properly take care of anything or anyone that is mine words don’t teach— )
is incision, is carapace
st mp
*with found poetry content drawn from Stuart Hall, Michel Foucault, and the Tao te Ching
Erin Russell @etcall is a writer
from Calgary living in Amsterdam. Winner of the 2019 Patricia Goedicke Prize
for Poetry and the University of Toronto’s Wycliffe College Poetry Award, her
work has appeared in CutBank, Burning House, Train, Black Bough, Scrivener, Time Out, and The Holland
Times, a.o., and has been
translated into French and Chinese. She lectures at Amsterdam University
College.
the way gold flake leaves from tips staging
gender mimetics the things we lost in floods and/or online
a kind (of) mobile space
these reference system scenographies these zeroes and once
your theoretical eyes—
I’m reading everyone but you
we’re checking our stats
you said my memes lack subtlety
(don’t unfollow me now)
what fingers have traditionally accomplished
what refusal now:
uncanny unnatural parodic
an edge—
mostly I say the wrong things
your theory of missing space this place in between:
these digits this code a kind of binary this (kin of) body
heavy with cotton stitched lip through lip these mouths like fabric
we feel for signs through night as if through
picket fields
doppler lines—
the way texts keep coming in we find
orientation, these words
carapace
inscribed regulation and power
are produced within the
woning/situated/universe/
city a home where we were not this kept
not in view___ \ this shut away
from public and from her these modes of production
(feline negation: your theology, not mine)
I am not this where we never
sharpening
oriented
correct
not
tortured but tortured
your shape / a kind of surveillance
mindful
this mes / our mess
these
empty spaceschronic
derive(d)
( it’s more about the way I never properly take care of anything or anyone that is mine words don’t teach— )
the body has become the site of a new kind of inter___ /
disciplinary regime
is incision, is carapace
(hieroglyph, etch-a-sketch, )
pa
li
s
e)
*with found poetry content drawn from Stuart Hall, Michel Foucault, and the Tao te Ching
