Objects
I carry these objects with me
From place to place.
Fewer each time,
I’m pairing back the dead weight.
I’m losing layers of threadbare tropes.
But each time I pack up
What’s left of me
I know I can’t let everything go
And it touches a piece in the darkness
That remembers
Midnight fleeing,
Five year old fingers
Clutching at straws
And philanthropic neighbours
Who sent their children
Out into the night to carry
Our belongings across the road
Piece by tender piece
A blighted benediction
You knew one more time
Would be too many and you
Packed up your heart, Mother,
In a suitcase meant for holidays
And we fled into the inky darkness
And we lived on shoestrings
Cos it was better than bottle tops
And we lived in so many
Makeshift situations
Cos anything is better
Than building bridges on a fracture
I carry a tiny box of defiance
That
Seizes small things
In the face of having none
And every object is a tool
With which to build
Your own freedom
If you hold it the right way.
Naomi Wood is a performance artist based in East Sussex creating pieces that incite riotous acts of joyful disobedience, celebrating empowerment and rebellion. She explores vulnerability and strength across a mythical natural landscape