TENANCY May Day Parade: Clause iv

‘the space where the class war occurs as such is, in its pure form,
imaginary’ as our hold
onto this one you won’t find another aquilegia like
‘imaginary in the mathematical sense’
words inadequate to pink mouse dreamwork
the shellsuit god lent you bursts open to highlighter blue
rosehips on the doorstep, haribo wrappers
wherever you stand to smoke—discarded crops
our jobs pay for this downstairs neighbour
to play nightswimming again our jobs pay
for this acoustic guitar guy whom I didn’t invite
to my party who didn’t invite me to his: ‘towers of set-theoretical universes
that can be controlled through relative
consistencies’ like

bedtime, work hours, nonbeing apportionment
like oil and comb hair before jumping through flames
confined to a small region of space we
react to our confinement by moving around
kittens rescind my order, perform air hockey with bangles
each surface a sonic minefield, or else
I watch my neighbour watching the neighbours clap
I cannot speak about the situation without speaking about
myself most liked sources for this long fix
rewound breakdown from ‘small, self-centred units’
to polymorphous membership at idiorhythmic hearths
each does their thing undampened, like play Endgame with friends
‘Ah yesterday!’ we still can pap, elegiacally
redeem these loyalty points, these gilded bindings

side effects of institutionalisation are effects of institutionalisation
‘Thanks for letting us know
about the asbestos, we really
appreciate it!’ rent asunder clouds
dipsomania reveals so much about clouds
morbidly, the natural world hellebore coursing through vasculature
sentiment’s a tourniquet, edducing ‘save me’ a dewdrop
in the socially ultimate ocean, future peoples serving flow
of love unimpeded by species or skillset
primula essence, flaxen hair hammocks, spiral age playlist
tending each other’s mysteries, we’d leave our mouths open
not because of policy, Simon says
our landlord is not a mega-wealthy property magnate so no
we can’t stop paying rent

maintaining these notions, these networks, these recreationally stratified nights in
since the rending of embodied copresence
contact’s out the window, miss atomic meet cute
window became mirror, miss bygone olfatronics
mirror lost its mandate, miss the 4D bus to Mattapoisett
when we future conditional enjoy a little more and less destruction
of personal space, an embolism in the communal organism
unless you’re using it to pray says The Architect of the Matrix
our landlord, not everyone needs to puncture their necks
to prove the poem’s truth, but:
the ghoul did squinch at a mooncup
the lard really did turn blue!
I’ll leave you, it’s time to clean always, to apologise, to reply the
of my labour endowing how many fruit bowls off stage

***

Nisha Ramayya grew up in Glasgow and is currently based in London. Her debut collection States of the Body Produced by Love (2019) is published by Ignota Books. She is a member of the ‘Race & Poetry & Poetics in the UK’ research group and a lecturer in Creative Writing at Queen Mary University of London.

TENANCY is a MAP project in twelve parts, presenting new work considering what it means to occupy somewhere–or something–temporarily. The project is curated by Helen Charman, MAP Commissioning Editor.