Anything that exists to process,
exists to fail. Ask yourself--
what’s the point of a kettle without water,
or a clock without time? For example,
take this exercise weight:
it has one job, which it achieves through
burden. Put it down on the scale’s
flashing face, like a baby or a
brick. Then see if the machine
stutters its sums, if its verdict is wrong,
if a fissure forms under the pressure,
the impact, the infallible weight
of that dense information.
Listen,
we are all soft brains straining
to translate whole worlds.
Who amongst us couldn’t,
suddenly, just break?
exists to fail. Ask yourself--
what’s the point of a kettle without water,
or a clock without time? For example,
take this exercise weight:
it has one job, which it achieves through
burden. Put it down on the scale’s
flashing face, like a baby or a
brick. Then see if the machine
stutters its sums, if its verdict is wrong,
if a fissure forms under the pressure,
the impact, the infallible weight
of that dense information.
Listen,
we are all soft brains straining
to translate whole worlds.
Who amongst us couldn’t,
suddenly, just break?
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Genna Gardini is a writer, theatre-maker, and educator. Her debut poetry collection, Matric Rage, was published by uHlanga Press in 2015 and received a commendation for the Ingrid Jonker Prize. Her work has been published widely, most recently in And Other Poems, New Contrast, and Literary Hub.
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