Joe Dunthorne - Residencies I’ve Not Applied For #5:Antarctica
by and published in Edition Twelve of Pomegranate
I’m not trying to suggest
that beneath the frozen lake,
there are Spaniards – nothing like that.
I just mean that the British Council
have paid me to come here
and I should notice something.
The whales: you can put your ear
to the ice and, sometimes, hear
their psytrance arpeggios
carried across the vast inverted sky.
The scientists are depressive
and always think before they speak.
Not all Spaniards are in to psytrance,
I know, but in this monochromatic booth
I can’t just lie here, doing nothing.
Joe Dunthorne
Joe Dunthorne was born and brought up in Swansea. His debut novel, Submarine (Penguin), has been translated into ten languages and made into a film. His debut poetry pamphlet is published by Faber.