“An Exhibition” by James Wijesinghe

An Exhibition

Illustration by Aimee Lee.

We bought the final tickets 

to an exhibition 

Antarctica in London

Here for one week only

Last piece on display

Afterwards 

we burnt through midnight oils 

with two short wicks

Distant

acid rainforests in flames

Then graveyard shifts 

in a gravy train rat race

All aboard 

What’s the score

A stack of Standards 

scattered up the wall

We skim stones across a page

Sheets and sheets 

Last seal shipped to frozen lakes in outer space

Film rights find sale

The sun sets the moon rises

The night sky looks no different

in the day

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What is this Poem about?

Showing a potential future not too far from today, I wanted to touch on the commodification and commercialisation of climate change and the Earth in all facets of daily human life, especially in a city. Like the last of its species in a zoo, would we flock to a museum to see the final piece of Antarctica? And once that melts, what’s the next glossy problem we’ll buy tickets to next?

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James Wijesinghe

James Wijesinghe is a poet and music publicist who spins his plates behind a bar in Bournemouth. After four years studying English, he now chooses the books he reads himself, (mostly comics). He was a Poetry Editor for The ENIGMA Journal and has performed on multiple raised platforms.

You can find more of his work via @wijswords on Instagram.

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