Re-assembly Required
By Felicity Plunkett
Published 19 October 2023
(after Nathan Baker)
Wooden anomalies
inhabit
a Berlin studio:
pieces of Ikea Stefan
chairscape stretch-
ed
in various asana:
pieces you thought fixed flex,
loosening tight musculature into
camel, dog, bakasana,
garudasana.
Legs and seats push giraffe
snouts into an imagined
tree.
A never meets B.
The art of acceptance:
making from what arrives
a jubilant menagerie.
This boy is neither Karl
nor Erik. He did not
arrive flat-packed.
Or his assembly has involved
errata, re-
imagining.
He will never look like any other:
will never be so plain.
The matching set of six
dining chairs
gathered around matching table,
the old block
is not an apposite metaphor.
There is not enough stretch
or break: re-invention’s
pull-and-risk where
beauty collects in the odd
angle: shows its face
in halls of the strange where
there are always rooms
to imagine.
Poet Felicity Plunkett led students of Knox Grammar School on a journey to uncover their own poetry object, exploring Red Room Poetry's Cabinet of Lost and Found learning resource. Felicity also composed this poem for the school as part of the workshop experience.