objects of fascination
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ugggghhhhhhh
it’s hurtling towards summer
& i’ve bn thinking about shells lately
a response to tragic patterns of
snail flesh
& slime & exoskeleton
smashed up on the sidewalk.
i’ve bn thinking about
the impulse to collect
& how every shell
used to contain
a soft body
& how shells
are instantly
less beautiful
once in yr home.
my friends j & n invite me
to the british museum
soft footfalls against the
static marble of empire
sometimes I care more about an
expiry date than a plaque
free wifi
do not touch the displays
gift shop this way
j & n steal some shortbread
& a mug from the gift shop
leaving a fuzzy snail trail of
crumbs out the exit
i read that the british museum’s
director
in other words, an animated potato
called the removal of the
parthenon marbles a
creative act
& i guess they’re not wrong
revisionism can be creative
in its
violence.
in its euphemisms
when playing animal crossing,
my friend k boycotts
blathers
the entomophobe private collector
fresh out of some avian ivory tower, no doubt,
with dubious financial backing &
even more dubious curatorial ethics
i respect her
refusal to engage
w/ the accrual
of these items for prestige & display, especially
when there are orchards to tend to
& plants to grow.
stolen from its owner’s body in
the 1860 summer palace ransacking,
looty was a
pekingese
w/ soft ears
wet eyes w/ that swimming pool sparkle
& a body like a cute loaf of bread :’)
named looty to seal its fate as
a spoil of war, it was described as
the most beautiful little animal in the uk
& a very lonely little creature
to be a beautiful and lonely object
w/ a name that is a perennial
reminder of one’s own displacement
is like a drink in the face
but
surprise!
it's
battery acid
battery acid
shaken not stirred
in a frosted martini glass.
mariah carey has an entire room
dedicated to
hello kitty memorabilia
& instead of paying his workers a liveable wage,
jeff bezos gathers
NASA artefacts from the ocean
amanda seyfried owns a taxidermy collection
& says in an interview:
caring for dead animals is easier than for live ones
& napoleon hoarded countries
as an oversized reaction to his insecurities & big pharma
fossil fuel companies & banks collect museums.
there is a mass scarcity complex
that treats the world
like it’s a hole
to be filled with things
fk freud but what is it he said about the
impulse to collect & that it stems from
unresolved toilet training conflict as a child.
basically… is a collector just trying to
repatriate their
rampant baby shits?
i have dreams
about a future where
soon no migration of wild animals will
CAConrad, Altered After Too Many Years Under the Mask
be unknown to humans
& in it, we may have gone too far
the past has become something
we have been taught to take
& cryogenically freeze for
a future of ownership
it’s a ravenous concept
in this future
the world’s last museum is a
sans serif start-up
filled with plastic so that
everything will last forever
& we can touch everything
without permission
& nothing will break
& nothing will matter
i refuse to see us as shareholders of the world,
its contents as capital to
consume
or its experiences as hot
property
as Bernadette Mayer said, property is robbery
to be
flogged &
bought &
hung.
Panda Wong is a poet and editor who lives on unceded land, so-called Melbourne/Narrm. She is interested in: (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ / cuteness / inappropriate funeral etiquette / exceptional fruit / avatars / online & irl grief / bodies in varying spaces / communication / processing / ellipses / boundaries / rashes / family / memory / snark. She is an associate editor at The Suburban Review and has been published in Runway Journal, Rabbit, Sick Leave, Liminal, and more. She is also a 2020 Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellow.
