Elizabeth Welsh

Before, this

(or researching lino before making prints)

lino is flooring material
lino is an assistant referee in football
lino lakes is in Anoka county
lino was a character in Mamma Roma
lino was an Italian actor who starred in French movies
lino was a Venezuelan musician in the Wars of Independence

lino is/was patience, finding one’s gr-greats

 

After, this

(or practising over and over again)

right lung
print
right lung
print
right lung
print

her lung and lino-print was five cm shorter
than the left/yesterday

it was still time to print/right/print

 

Owning a linoprint/banana passion-fruit

Noon-searches for banana passion-fruit seeds
to regrow the neighbour’s combed vine.

She made lino-print study after study.
There was nothing ethical in it.

Owning seemed so slight a word,
full of full of full of fullness overflow:

barrow bellow billow burrow callow
fallow fellow furrow gallow hallow

 

 

By Elizabeth Welsh

is a poet, short fiction writer and academic editor. Her debut collection of poetry is Over There a Mountain (Mākaro Press, 2018). Her poetry and short fiction have been published in journals and anthologies in both New Zealand and the United Kingdom. In 2012, she won the Divine Muses – NEW VOICES – Emerging Poets Award. She lives in Titirangi with her husband and daughter.