“Manufacturing” by Elaine Lee
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Manufacturing” by Elaine Lee.
Manufacturing
By Elaine Lee
The chocolate amalgamating at the dumb roof of your mouth / Your tongue reaching to receive it / You
snuck it into your pocket at the convenience store / On the corner where Sylvia broke it off / For real this
time / So the twinkle of foil was a cosmic revenge / So be it
The cocoa was farmed in Ecuador in a good harvest year / Each pod lifted from its cradle without
wounding the soft bark of the tree / The package was designed in a glass-bound office / Thickly spilling
its chorus of seventy LED bulbs / By a young contractor in pillowy moon boots / And her swagger in the
photocopier room / She knew it was all the rage
The socks slinking down her heels / They were knit by her grandmother / The yarn was spun by a
knobbly-kneed father / On his daughterโs first day of kindergarten / The thread pranced through sixteen
growling machines / Took a dip in the dye vat / The fibres came from an old sheep / Who had never seen
the open sky / Its hind legs emerged newborn pink / Reopened to sensitivity
The sheep was raised by an Australian shearer with detached interest / He had too many things to think
about / Too many images trailing behind him / His wifeโs IUD cardboard box with the Mona Lisa on it /
Baby-proofed for five years / That uncanny paintingโs level gaze / Pixelated and wry / Behind it that little
pair of copper hooks / Like one that two goldfish could pinch with their blubbery mouths / An exercise in
symmetry / In resolve
Copyright ยฉ Elaine Lee
Previously published in Room 48.3, 2025.
Elaine Lee writes poetry about feelings that have no name. She is currently completing her MA in English in the Field of Creative Writing at the University of Toronto.
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