Hanging in the Air

Previous articleNext article FreeHanging in the AirAndrea BradyAndrea Brady Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMore1 April 2020Being less than an activitywe empty out life that hangslike code air, but how longdoes it survive there if air is white and lush,more benevolent city ever, whose leaves are outof a season we missing. It hangson window like recrimination,a rainbow trail, wolf’s chalky inviteto last kid hiding clock.And call; filled with callsof chattering specieswhose voices carried from house houseparties face times, many heard, silent.And nothing indifferencegrowing warmer tangled biome its humancarriers. We pick our way prudently down street.The person who passes us:a matrix of infection. turn around at headof aisle has someone it, wash handsand shrink. Our hands very dry now. mean gestures have all changed.When poem I say nuclear family Londonwho lucky. Having outside space.The ball keeps getting kicked over fence, someonethere return it.A friend, Chinese, been repeatedly abused street.Mean gestures, filthy speech. The street also spacewhere neighbours clapping. Where perform distanceto contain bad humours may be hiddenin another body. Hidden inside room can’t leftbecause news, violent man, guard, border. nowvery easy get sectioned. consider ourselves indefinitelyseparated friends lovers will sameuntil is, amazonificationof planet complete, we’ll releasedfrom incommensurate lockdown party write poemsupon poems about virus discourse war.And some still not able go intothe streets full performance abuse.For now apart hem looking silver liningsinside garment surprises.My kids teaching me black holes, clock time,and dentistry ancient Egypt.I thought singularity was site infinitely dense matterbut it’s profound energy distorts space time.They’re overjoyed learn they tried passthrough horizon they’d spaghettified,their whole body stream plasmaone atom wide. If your being then emptyit would still, watching universe shiftand quicken before it.Right I’m writing standing up because teachingand working printing feeding rememberingand pain. When you’re sick or pain hard rememberwhat be, self streamedpainlessly through world yourself, lightstuttering on her light face.How could so stupid noticehow always move street?Right am trying read accountsof anaesthetists. misread inhalationof toxic gas as glass. don’t want think people aloneI tell their experiencesof big historical singularityand hide data them. waythe hole seen shifts everything itbut that’s comparison just laugh.They know collapse clearsthe least. How cool sky bewithout scratching motors. lag together,smooth suspension.We stay yard.In green yellow imageof lungs givenif cross abandonthe family, private property, obedient domains.NotesAndrea Brady’s books poetry include Strong Room (2016), Dompteuse (2014), Cut Rushes (2013), Mutability: Scripts Infancy (2012), Wildfire: A Verse Essay Obscurity Illumination (2010). She professor Queen Mary University London, where she founded Centre Poetry Archive Now. DetailsFiguresReferencesCited Critical Inquiry Volume 47, Number S2Winter 2021Posts PandemicEdited Hank Scotch Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/711431 Views: 764 Citations: 1Citations reported Crossref © 2021 Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download reports following citing article:W. J. T. Mitchell Groundhog Day Epoché, no.S2S2 (Dec 2020): S95–S99.https://doi.org/10.1086/711447