Watermelon Piece
(& other Pieces after Yoko Ono)
Cake your face in white paint.
Doll yourself up like a geisha.
Travel on The Tube. Do not smile at anybody.
Get off at Green Park & examine carp in the pond.
Photograph yourself wearing a deckchair.
Smile widely, as a sliced watermelon.
Slug Piece
Find yourself a bridle path in the rain.
Walk along it, collecting slugs.
Imagine an ugly man named Sugeno san. Or someone like him.
Shave off his eyebrows. Glue slugs in their place.
Photograph his face.
Mount it on a Christmas card. Send to someone you hate.
Golf Ball Piece
Collect stray golf balls from hedges.
Use a litter collecting device.
Beware of flying golf balls.
Whiten them with Tippex.
When you have 1000 golf balls,
pierce them with a sashimi knife
until stale air is released.
Cut each ball into strips, as if slicing a fish belly.
Overlap them like narratives
of a zuihitsu. Stick them in a collage
using dirty-white papier mâché glue.
Cut up your husband’s flowerpot hat.
Feature it at the centre of the piece.
Spray the scene with spf 50 sunscreen
and scatter with collagen tablets. Frame it.
Display atop of his golf caddy.
__________________________
Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana’s first collection, Sing me down from the dark (SALT; 2022) is
in its third issue. In 2023, she was longlisted for the National Poetry Prize and shortlisted for
the Fish Prize.
These poems were chosen by Anthropocene Guest Editor HLR.
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