Poem and Photograph by Elin Karlsson
Some risks seem worth taking.
Like, eating a thin sliver of cured sausage,
beef fillet slightly pink,
a nibble of brie, raw eggs.
I mean, licking brownie mixture off a wooden spoon.
Pure vanilla essence though,
should never be licked off a spoon.
No matter how many months pregnant you are.
To lower the love
of my heaviness
over your outstretched body
until I can’t catch my breath and
you retaliate my clutch and
she kicks both of us in the ribs,
with the blinds not quite closed.
Or dial in to join a video call
naked and
take care to slowly dress as it connects.
I am just yet to find a rationale
for for dressing waist down.
Then writing a list of things to do,
pledges to a future self:
Read a chapter
Train dog not to bark at door
Order fabric
Sew (curtains + jeans)
Nap
Make a nice dinner
Take dog to park
Drink 8 glasses of water
Make brownies
Write
Do the laundry + everything left from yesterday’s list.
As if it is a given that
the day will be over before the laundry is done,
just as it was the day before.
Elin Karlsson (b. Gothenburg) is an artist based between Worthing and London. Elin is a practice based PhD researcher at UAL, based at LCC. The title of Elin’s research is “Practicing lewdness, DIY and banishment. Addressing taste, sexuality and cultural form through a practice- based investigation into contemporary domestic spaces”. Upcoming and selected projects and exhibitions include Taking Time, Museum of Loss and Renewal, Collemacchia, Italy (2020), Picturing the Invisible, Chelsea College of Art London (2019), MEAD Rome Residency, British School at Rome (2019), Made for Life, Regency Town House, Hove (2018), The Best Mess, HUTT Collective, Nottingham (2017), Life is On, Jakob Kroon Galeri, Stockholm (2016).