Encyclopaedia E-Book

Chloe Elliott

• Herausgeber: The Poetry Business
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 21

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Chloe Elliott's Encyclopaedia is playful and visceral, exploring boundaries of identity and the search for meaning in poems that delight with richly tactile language. Formally varied, these poems are unflinching in their physicality.

Leseprobe

Published 2023 by

New Poets List

The Poetry Business

Campo House,

54 Campo Lane,

Sheffield S1 2EG

Copyright © Chloe Elliott 2023

All Rights Reserved

ISBN 978-1-914914-53-9

eBook ISBN 978-1-914914-54-6

Typeset by Utter

Cover image: Marissa Rodriguez on Unsplash

Printed by Biddles Books

Smith|Doorstop Books are a member of Inpress:

www.inpressbooks.co.uk

Distributed by NBN International, 1 Deltic Avenue,

Rooksley, Milton Keynes MK13 8LD

The Poetry Business gratefully acknowledges the support of Arts Council England.

Contents

Aupair

Body

Cow

Dreamtheory

Eating Orange Peel Is An Act Against God

Encyclopaedia

Fishcoarse

Gay Club

Grey Pennant

Lacan’s Ladies

Leotard

Red Is The Body Electric

Sever

Tripe

Ungracious

Wasps

Water

Acknowledgements

The emperor was a fickle god.He preferred to be thrilled by an automatic bird

in filigreed gold. A musicbox, a leitmotif.Love me, please. Orange blossom.

– Sarah Howe, ‘A Certain Chinese Encyclopaedia’.

Aupair

And then the kid makes a joke about a pointy hat & says your trousers would fit in a paddy field. And then he says god won’t deliver you quick into kindness and you don’t hold anything extraneous or even qualify with the parts that count, the parts that will get you through the golden gates and past the undulating men who resemble Peter Sarsgaard. And then his dad is looking at you in a funny kind of way at dinner. Touching your feet. I say fuck you, fuck you Benedetto, I’ll spit gluten into your polenta, that’ll show you my good heart and my teeth that break at this time of month. Anyway, he was only eight so I didn’t do any of that and just asked for it with milk instead.

Body

Hello again old friend hello furuncle old tired spaceship that

sometimes struggles to make it in the morning struggles

to wake                let me hold your hand what will come away if not

the beeswax and thread the yarn for the French folds

and gaps in the bind       the secret pockets that carry chopped

thumbs  cherry tomatoes and train tickets            let’s try rolling

you out until you resemble a Helen Frankenthaler

be a girl who is all for experiments             reach into yourself

and find a paste that is strict and fractious the sting

of sunburn and consistency of sambal belachan

              pull that stuff out                live your new dreamlife as

a puddle of goop                a damp sheet of dough unsuitable

for lasagne but perfect for heavy clay & rose growing

I’m saying squeeze yourself between the stones of an aluminium