To the Film Industry in Crisis, Frank O’Hara
by Luca Fois
In times of crisis, we must all decide again and again whom we love
and I choose you, everchanging body. I choose again my tongue, shouting
when my water bottle pretends to fall on the floor and my friend laughs at my shrills,
and thrilled by the news of a published poem, I choose my wiggly muffin tops,
and leave behind the comments you threw at me while I jiggled upstairs.
I choose my wrinkles underneath my eyes, crumpled for all the screens, but mostly
for what’s underneath, the news, the news I will leave behind,
I don’t love them. In times of crisis, I want to love my body, decaying, and yet
desired, by men and some of my friends because my body gives the best hugs.
My body, the one that shakes at the sight of blood, at a child that cries on the street,
or the one that dies, sometimes in the sea, sometimes underneath a bomb.
It is in times of crisis that we must decide, again and again whom we love
and I choose my knees, especially the left one, the one that pops
when I stand up, for I too need to eat. My body has a certain hunger
and wants its fuel, sometimes food, sometimes the smile of a stranger
in the neighbourhood supermarket while touching lemons. I choose my body
in times of crisis, and the pinky toe on my right foot, swollen.
When it’s bare on the beach, I wiggle it underneath the sand,
and I love it, and I should show you that it, too, exists and carries
my fat, my bones, and all my fucking organs.
I choose my heart, not the one that feels, what nonsense, but the one that pumps
blood for my body, whom I love in its entirety, disgustingly wet and fragile
and noisy, can you hear its thumps? I choose my hands in times of crisis,
the ones that put the words on this page, the ones that move when I speak,
because I, too, have origins which are not necessarily the ones you like.
I choose my body, because in times of crisis, it’s my body that protests, a fist
strong like a blossom, the foot rooted in this boot, stomping against you and you,
and you know who you are, in this time of crisis.
Luca Fois
Luca Fois is a poet living in Edinburgh, in the liminal space between languages. He loves poetry, writing, and vibing with chaos. You can find him in a local café thinking about the right word to end a line, lurking on X @cuttinghail and on Bluesky @cuttinghail.bsky.social; he’s also a chaotic ghost on Instagram @happy_narvalo, sharing words and food. His work has appeared on Streetcake Magazine, Tiny Wren Lit, Corvus Review, Black Stone/White Stone and Spark to flame and BRAWL lit. Shortlisted for the inaugural The Brilliant Poetry prize (www.thebrilliantpoetry.com/2024).
JC Alfier
JC Alfier’s (they/them) artistic directions are informed by photo-artists Toshiko Okanoue, Deborah Turbeville, Francesca Woodman, and especially Katrien De Blauwer. Their most recent poetry book, The Shadow Field, was published by Louisiana Literature Press (2020). Journal credits include The Brooklyn Review, Faultline, Notre Dame Review, Penn Review, River Styx, and Vassar Review.