Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site

ARTS AND CULTURE

Chelsea Manning at Guangzhou Airport

  • 14 May 2018

 

Selected poems

 

 

To consider Chelsea Manning at Guangzhou Airport

1. Scoping

word docs surprise in the departure lounge

under foreign infomercials: the unrecognisable

 

pixels you are — fonts align

solvent cultures

from cabin to smoking alcove

the hour rebranded, air smartened, no biography necessary

is Triskelion not a drug?

 

diasporic maintenance /

movement the music of ideology,

try on breath:

beginnings, nothings, dwelling

on Chelsea's weak chin

& the edge on the air

 

2. Crescendo

doubt Europe's crowded skies

until further information

 

tepid rapport suggests itself

among those watching screens

from low places,

a sit-in

in the name of a face / here

it is the idea of Him that inspires

no more

 

the actuality of Her

and me

growing dimmer

as the distorted glow of

a new morning's haze

illuminates factories in the distance

as if deleted scenes

 

 

 

Lunar gardening

intense dimensions pose

alluvial conundra

with the fence line

spawned in late '05

 

prune on a waning moon —

it is the quarter

for root crops

 

under moons elsewhere

internal seed bearing fruit

 

retard growth

because of the decking

spawned in late '05

 

winter dormancy — a relief of sorts

but soon a visit to the lady on the fire trail

for moisture advice

 

barren ground weaned

in constellations

for a plausible harvest

 

and tendrils infused

with orbits

 

 

Join the conversation. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter  Subscribe