Houseworks, excerpts


And so the family came, gradually,to build resistance,
a wire between the day to day

VacateEmpathetic

RhythmicalAbortion

Bellyful

One afternoon after work she

Certain words become foreign

weeds untouchable inaction incomplete

we reward ourselves an hour of chat
fan skins, forget our gender

Except the very old

Our very tidy minds

accepting pleasure, water, driftwood
this humiliated language

the stench of it(correct wrench)

"I might have gone on except there was no money.
I had to choose. I had no choice.
A whole month's wages for the dress I wanted."

Complicit in

the death of pets, a little

There are such poor examples.



Before the big due.
At night, the words came loose. Scattered
on the walls she thought

We shipped the children out and split
the families up. We believed
it was the best way to make Progress.

With a real job. With sincerity.
With a good man. With absolute sincerity.

The site of missing children
and what they missed.

The recovery and the re-use and the waste.
One arm following the other in routine tasks.
Hellbent for mother.

It took that many men to stop him.

The voyeur of the very poor.
The concept of one minute violence.

It keeps us intimate
with empty spaces.

In restraint /

Kathryn MacLeod


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