The Crick – Will Harris
I didn’t expect
to be nervous. In
the morning, light
shone through
the coloured glass.
I was nervous,
but happy. After
losing auntie, after
losing my best
friend, I said please
don’t point your
temperature gun
at my head. We
watched the news.
We worked 84
hours a week and
only received
a rainbow badge.
He lost his work
overnight. Never
ending screen time.
I’ve not danced
with anyone in a
year. My daughter
was born. I got
to know the shops
in Wood Green.
Four cabs, that’s
how many I tried
to flag down
to get here. Don’t
know how they
knew. Was it
my hair? My skin
tone? I wore shades
to hide my eyes.
A snow moon
hung over London
as I travelled
home. It looked
like I felt.
Artistic Statement
‘The Crick’ draws on response data collected from visitors to The Crick Institute during its vaccination program, and an interview conducted with a volunteer. As much as possible, I tried to avoid imposing my preconceptions on these responses. But I was struck by the overriding sense of anxiety they contained. This seemed to stem less from a fear of being vaccinated than from the ongoing trauma of the past year. It felt – and still feels – important not to ‘close off’ this trauma, either through over-interpretation or by offering a false sense of consolation. I decided to keep to the language of the responses, only altering personal pronouns and syntax where appropriate. I wanted the multiple voices to come together of their own accord, expressing the simultaneous anger, grief and hope of this moment. Formally, short lines felt appropriate. Sentences stutter and break off, as if unable to carry the weight of their experience. There’s hurt in these words, but also the strength that comes from expressing that hurt openly.
Artist Bio
Will Harris is a London-based writer and the author of RENDANG, which was a Poetry Book Society Choice, shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2020.
Of Partings & Preludes – Momtaza Mehri
