daily
it’s translation & catching yourself & navigating polite surprise & over-explaining & the judicious use of partner & when they do the same it’s wondering & a pause while you consider how shocked they’ll be if you say dyke & how shocked they’ll pretend to be if you say dyke & whether they’ll assume your language is their permission & it’s wishing some of your neighbours were family & knowing they probably are & the loneliness of not knowing & it’s getting it wrong & making your own assumptions & apologies & it’s the choice of how much to speak in each moment & how much to exist in each moment & when someone says something about the queers with just a touch too much emphasis on the it’s the decision about how to arrange your face & the decision about how to arrange your guts & the rage & the rage & it’s the give us this day our daily rage & forgive me sisters for this act of translation & forgive me sisters for this act of silence & forgive me body for this act of rage
Elizabeth Chadwick Pywell’s pamphlet, Breaking (Out) was published by Selcouth Station Press in 2022, and Unknown by Stairwell Press in 2021. She has featured in journals including Fourteen Poems, New Welsh Review, Spelt and Impossible Archetype, has longlisted for the Leeds Poetry Prize and Mslexia Women’s Poetry Competition, shortlisted for the Ironbridge Festival Prize, and in 2022 won the Northern Writers’ Debut Award for Poetry: Out-Spoken Press Programme.