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.