Poetry

Chris Devers/Banksy

By

Penn Kemp

Art Cuts

Urban smoke: what’s cracked up as

diesel exhaust and me(n)tal fatigue–

twin assaults on the boundary of the possible.

Tires tread. Wearily worn

down by constant cycling, I am

tired. And exhorted to register my anger,

mobilize resistance at Arts Cuts,

funding losses. The Government

has forgotten all those revenues

it claims from cultural workers. As if we

can support the flailing system. As if

Art were a frill, not a necessary art/

iculation of response.

Wresting something out of

nothing, that is something

even the gods must rest from.

Even I am not too tired to jot

this poem down. Truly tired and it

would have just

dropped

off

Penn Kemp

Penn Kemp is an activist Canadian poet, playwright and editor.  Her latest works are two plays celebrating local hero and explorer, Teresa Harris, produced in 2017 and published by Playwrights Guild of Canada. Recent books include Barbaric Cultural Practice (quattrobooks.ca/books/barbaric-cultural-practice/) and two anthologies edited, Women and Multimedia and Performing Women (http://poets.ca/feministcaucus/livingarchives/). See www.pennkemp.weebly.com.