CAST YOUR NET

i gave myself a bowl cut / without using a bowl / now little orange hairs / are sticking to my soul /
the first atom was a bathtub / i split it with my body / my soul is growing out its fringe / it cut it in
the library / behind keizersgracht canal / water remembered / it could have skin / the problem of fission / is the problem of hopelessness / the water offered itself / as a soupy fortune cooky / the pike sung their message sweetly / don’t cut a fringe / if you don’t have a face /

victor said he could hear the mud / drying underneath the sun / me and victor have different theories / of how language began / mine is a slipped away memory / his is here on the screen / silken cogs /
clank of wheel on ramp / sometimes when i talk i see / my words suspended pinkly / coalescing mist / against empty sky / like uneaten pacman food / like garnets / waiting to arrive /

we play a game / called pig rat cat dog / pig rat are the primary categories / an intuitive binary / it is
not supposed to be about what you look like / but sometimes it is / cat dog are secondary categories / used to refine your pig-ness or rat-ness / to soften or intensify / proust is a pig cat i said to victor / proust is the same as me / victor grew agitated / you will have to separate the author from the text
he said / james joyce is a rat dog i said / in retrospect i was being petty / i never finished ulysses / in january /

to reframe is to / cut away the growth / making a soft cleaning / for meaning to land in / to reframe
is to / prefer the middle / to borders / if your hair is good / it no longer matters / your nose might even wear / a uniform / displacement bouncing / flat stones for throwing / an armoury in dimpled light /
a holiday room at the last chance saloon / plasticine arrows are easy to manipulate / they are always pointing / back at me

Phoebe Eccles has been published by SPAM zine, Strix, Ambit and SOFT EIS, and she has an essay forthcoming in the Anthology Love Spells & Rituals for Another World. She is the creator of a poetry and short story zine called Algae. Prior to the pandemic, she performed comedy spoken word. She is from and still lives in Hackney, London.