This selection from a longer poem by Lotte LS evokes a domestic scene that pops up from memory. A home’s worn, broken, and neglected objects pile up, and as they do so, the demands of these objects become apparent. A mess is not inert. Dirty dishes make demands. The home here is not a place of safety or comfort, but a place of work. Yet there is no question of a strike, only of an escape. Selected by Anne Boyer
From ‘This energy wasted by the flight –’
By Lotte LS
But what do I remember?
The shelves are disordered, dust gathers at the edges
from a photo, broken carrying case,
a sink full of dishes
grinning in the civil twilight.
Where to strike when work is at home?
A persistent little voice that says:
go away, go away –
Anne Boyer is a poet and essayist. Her memoir about cancer and care, “The Undying,” won a 2020 Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction. Lotte L.S is a poet who lives in Great Yarmouth, a town on the far east coast of England. Her writing includes a pamphlet with Tripwire titled “One city, three cities, one fig, one riot, two bluebells, three beginnings, five letters, one ‘death’, two loneliness, facades, four loose dogs, … … translations by Moroccan poet and Marxist feminist Saïda Menebhi and shorter, self-published pamphlets of poetry such as “Untitled (Iceland).” “THIS ENERGY WASTED BY FLIGHT —” is out now from Pamenar Press, accompanied by a German translation by the poet and translator Lotta Thiessen.
