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Leak
Welcome to Kate Hargreaves' Leak , where the relationship between language and the body lives in the bumps and bruises that in turn become new ways of understanding the borders and leaks of our everyday existence. In Leak, bodies lose pieces and fall apart, while words slip out of place and letters drop away. Emergency room signage becomes incomprehensible, the census requests bodily measurements, a cyclist confuses oil with her own blood. This visceral deconstruction of the body and its multiple representations tests the boundaries of body politics — pathologically, emotionally, and lyrically.
- GenresPoetry
96 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 6, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 24, 2022
1. I could bite you. As an infant foot-in-mouth and foot-and-mouth until my feet were feet away so far down my legs that I couldn't dream of bending them up to my face or even touching them fingers to toes straight-kneed. Toenails as markers of flex-prowess, glinting in yoga-mat leg lengths. Measure the gap between finger and toe nail. I cheated. Bent my knees and mat clattered finger and toe nails together. Matte.
2. As in in-grown nail, bu aren't they all in-grown-out from the nail bed? A jag-edge shard my skin overgrew tender, warm, and red. Gotta dig it. Can you dig it? Scalpel toe clenching doctor a foot and corn and callus specialist scraping hot skin searching for nail scraps. Digging for bones or scraping weed roots. Tweezer plucking culprit cartilage. 40 dollars and 4 x 4 gauze.
3. High heels versus ballet flats you lost to the stilleto-toe stomped you big toe. Lost the other to her dance partner's oxford step. Two crunches on the dance floor a yelp and a limp. Sidelined for the last two songs. Tights off pulled by the toes under covers in the groom's parents' basement. Good morning black nails. Purple black ombre paint and the next week you shattered in my sock. Black toe veneer souvenirs skin bare pink. I painted you red and stubby lacquered the skin. Red flesh and top coat. Lifted necro to the toilet and flushed.
4. I dig you. Dig you with the nail scissors and a toilet paper wad. Brush the yellow crumbs out - you grew back sick and detached. Split from the skin. Soak you well in salts and mouthwash. Dye feet teal. Purple. Dip in tea tree. Smear Vaporub. Eucalyptus toes crumbling yellow and cool into sock seams.
5. He toenail sliced my heel. Rolled over in bed and kicked. Ankle meet jagged edge. Frrrrrrrrip. Collect blood and skin flakes under nail bed and bedsheets. I told you to cut those toenails. Mmmmmm hmmm. Rolls over again. Mmm hmmm I did.
6. Wanted to dance ballet. Soccer cleats instead of toe shoes. Better for your toesies. Dancers lose their toenails, crush their toes. Bruise black. Don't kick from the toe. Toe the line. Turn out your toes. Your nails didn't turn out. Didn't nail that shot. Another nail in the coffin. Spittin' tacks. Spitting nails.
7. Can't stop biting my fingernails. Can't reach my toes. Carry a nail file and never grind. A nail file on the bus. On a walk. On the move. Toenails are sharp. File sharper.
* * *
She chews three salteens at once.
She chews an orange peel.
She chews a stick of jerky.
She chews her bottom lip.
She chews the end of her sleeve and leaves a hole.
She chews the cap off her pen.
She chews the inside of her left cheek. She chews it up and spits it out.
She chews it over.
She chews him out.
She chews more than she can bite off.
She chews her cud.
She chews tobacco.
She chews the fat with the cashier of Tim Horton's while waiting for her everything bagel with plain, light cream cheese and a blueberry white tea with nothing in it because, she tells the cashier whose nametag says Abe, their coffee really doesn't do much for her, sort of like drinking bathwater, or the bottom of a rum and coke when the ice has melted and you can really only taste water.
She chews gum and walks at the same time.
She chews nails.
She eschews.
She eschews her old friends.
She eschews a male escort.
She issues a parking ticket.
She issues takes. She takes issue.
She: "choose."
She achoo-s.
Sheet use.
Chez tu.
* * *
Went 28 hours on black coffee alone.
No paper record but
- you can write this down
dropped to
117.26.
Noise-cancelled the grumbles.
Packed an apricot a day and scraped
93 in Home Ec.
- need a transcript?
Planked over calculus and crunched
75, 76, 77
sanding down vertabrae on hardwood.
Passed out on the high jump mat before 800 m
tryouts (you're just built for the distance)
licked the chocolate off a Crunchie wrapped squatting west
stairwell on spare
faked cramps in the showers and
swapped latex for wool in September chem lab
sprouted goose down up my back
stockpiled tampons
stretched out in Dewey psych section 616
fell asleep in the stacks.
* * *
1. chew gum.
2. gnaw fingernails to stub tips. raw pink and panging. popcorn salt hangnails.
3. bite pen end. paint mouth roof in ink eruption. blue tongue. taste blue: blue freezie blue powder punch blue ink tastes like flax.
4. doorbell your neighbour. loaner pen. clutch an egg and one cup of sugar for trade. no answer. rest egg against if you lived here you'd be home mat. pour sugar in window box. water geraniums. door knocker sticky note. blank.
5. check in. bible notepad phone book remote control desk drawer. check out. no pen. too many stains in the bathtub. microwave-free. bedbugs. white towels not blue. twin not queen. left the door at home unlocked. credit card at the grocery store.
6. front desk room refund from 7b.
7. yawn.
8. molar pen cap tail flat. pick popcorn shards from teeth. spit.
9. gums. chew.
* * *
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* * *
Step on a crack: break your mother's back.
Leave a dirty spoon in the sink: fail your driver's test.
Tip over a family photo:
Wash your hands for only 23 seconds: step on a crack.
Eat you green bean before your broccoli: skip a period.
Wear the blue skirt with yellow flowers: miss the last bus for work.
Double- not triple;check the stove is off:
migraine. Smoke three cigarettes instead of four before 5 P.M. Skip the bus. Don't make it to the bedroom before the front door closes. Lose your job. Miss your test. Break your family photo. Drop the rent down a sewer grate.
Forget to check your rearview mirror: run over a cat. Step on a family photo. Forget your hands. Check your mirror. Your parents split up and your sister moves across the country. Eat your dirty spoon. Tip over the stove. Check your mirror. Go to court. Double-triple-check your mirror. Wash the blue skirt stove. Check your mirror. Double-check your hands. Lose the cat. Don't close the front door. Check your -
Step on a crack.
* * *
Some women marry roller skates
Soles fuse to plates and wheels
slip of the tailbone
scrape wrist
trip toe.
Laces taut
wrap bearings
tug grooves in ankles.
She rubs cream onto green purple knees shaving around stubble swell
pulls tights over thigh blotches
wheel-round fleshy.
Legs that bruise like plums.
* * *
Split skin
dragged a trail of elbow along the sidewalk
skipstones and beerglass nesting deep
bloodslip slick wrist /
mosquito lumps / cut cuticles /
sneakers scuff armhair /
black cotton shirt sleeve scraps /
sunburned flesh
off pavement
bikes tread tissue and sweat
with gum grit and saliva
sun baking forearm to asphalt
gravel fuses to bone
peel heatseals
sears limb to path
tarmac garnish
sidewalk scab
2. As in in-grown nail, bu aren't they all in-grown-out from the nail bed? A jag-edge shard my skin overgrew tender, warm, and red. Gotta dig it. Can you dig it? Scalpel toe clenching doctor a foot and corn and callus specialist scraping hot skin searching for nail scraps. Digging for bones or scraping weed roots. Tweezer plucking culprit cartilage. 40 dollars and 4 x 4 gauze.
3. High heels versus ballet flats you lost to the stilleto-toe stomped you big toe. Lost the other to her dance partner's oxford step. Two crunches on the dance floor a yelp and a limp. Sidelined for the last two songs. Tights off pulled by the toes under covers in the groom's parents' basement. Good morning black nails. Purple black ombre paint and the next week you shattered in my sock. Black toe veneer souvenirs skin bare pink. I painted you red and stubby lacquered the skin. Red flesh and top coat. Lifted necro to the toilet and flushed.
4. I dig you. Dig you with the nail scissors and a toilet paper wad. Brush the yellow crumbs out - you grew back sick and detached. Split from the skin. Soak you well in salts and mouthwash. Dye feet teal. Purple. Dip in tea tree. Smear Vaporub. Eucalyptus toes crumbling yellow and cool into sock seams.
5. He toenail sliced my heel. Rolled over in bed and kicked. Ankle meet jagged edge. Frrrrrrrrip. Collect blood and skin flakes under nail bed and bedsheets. I told you to cut those toenails. Mmmmmm hmmm. Rolls over again. Mmm hmmm I did.
6. Wanted to dance ballet. Soccer cleats instead of toe shoes. Better for your toesies. Dancers lose their toenails, crush their toes. Bruise black. Don't kick from the toe. Toe the line. Turn out your toes. Your nails didn't turn out. Didn't nail that shot. Another nail in the coffin. Spittin' tacks. Spitting nails.
7. Can't stop biting my fingernails. Can't reach my toes. Carry a nail file and never grind. A nail file on the bus. On a walk. On the move. Toenails are sharp. File sharper.
- Toenails, after bpNichol, pg. 18-19
* * *
She chews three salteens at once.
She chews an orange peel.
She chews a stick of jerky.
She chews her bottom lip.
She chews the end of her sleeve and leaves a hole.
She chews the cap off her pen.
She chews the inside of her left cheek. She chews it up and spits it out.
She chews it over.
She chews him out.
She chews more than she can bite off.
She chews her cud.
She chews tobacco.
She chews the fat with the cashier of Tim Horton's while waiting for her everything bagel with plain, light cream cheese and a blueberry white tea with nothing in it because, she tells the cashier whose nametag says Abe, their coffee really doesn't do much for her, sort of like drinking bathwater, or the bottom of a rum and coke when the ice has melted and you can really only taste water.
She chews gum and walks at the same time.
She chews nails.
She eschews.
She eschews her old friends.
She eschews a male escort.
She issues a parking ticket.
She issues takes. She takes issue.
She: "choose."
She achoo-s.
Sheet use.
Chez tu.
- Chew, pg. 25-26
* * *
Went 28 hours on black coffee alone.
No paper record but
- you can write this down
dropped to
117.26.
Noise-cancelled the grumbles.
Packed an apricot a day and scraped
93 in Home Ec.
- need a transcript?
Planked over calculus and crunched
75, 76, 77
sanding down vertabrae on hardwood.
Passed out on the high jump mat before 800 m
tryouts (you're just built for the distance)
licked the chocolate off a Crunchie wrapped squatting west
stairwell on spare
faked cramps in the showers and
swapped latex for wool in September chem lab
sprouted goose down up my back
stockpiled tampons
stretched out in Dewey psych section 616
fell asleep in the stacks.
- Research Ethics Board, pg. 33
* * *
1. chew gum.
2. gnaw fingernails to stub tips. raw pink and panging. popcorn salt hangnails.
3. bite pen end. paint mouth roof in ink eruption. blue tongue. taste blue: blue freezie blue powder punch blue ink tastes like flax.
4. doorbell your neighbour. loaner pen. clutch an egg and one cup of sugar for trade. no answer. rest egg against if you lived here you'd be home mat. pour sugar in window box. water geraniums. door knocker sticky note. blank.
5. check in. bible notepad phone book remote control desk drawer. check out. no pen. too many stains in the bathtub. microwave-free. bedbugs. white towels not blue. twin not queen. left the door at home unlocked. credit card at the grocery store.
6. front desk room refund from 7b.
7. yawn.
8. molar pen cap tail flat. pick popcorn shards from teeth. spit.
9. gums. chew.
- How to Lock a Jaw, pg. 43
* * *
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbBcccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccCCCdddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddDDDDeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffFggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikkkkkkIllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmMnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOpppppppppppppppppppppPPPrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssStttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttTTuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwxxxxxyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyz
- Prognosis, pg. 57
* * *
Step on a crack: break your mother's back.
Leave a dirty spoon in the sink: fail your driver's test.
Tip over a family photo:
Wash your hands for only 23 seconds: step on a crack.
Eat you green bean before your broccoli: skip a period.
Wear the blue skirt with yellow flowers: miss the last bus for work.
Double- not triple;check the stove is off:
migraine. Smoke three cigarettes instead of four before 5 P.M. Skip the bus. Don't make it to the bedroom before the front door closes. Lose your job. Miss your test. Break your family photo. Drop the rent down a sewer grate.
Forget to check your rearview mirror: run over a cat. Step on a family photo. Forget your hands. Check your mirror. Your parents split up and your sister moves across the country. Eat your dirty spoon. Tip over the stove. Check your mirror. Go to court. Double-triple-check your mirror. Wash the blue skirt stove. Check your mirror. Double-check your hands. Lose the cat. Don't close the front door. Check your -
Step on a crack.
- Cracking, pg. 63
* * *
Some women marry houses.
It's another kind of skin
- "Housewife", Anne Sexton
Some women marry roller skates
Soles fuse to plates and wheels
slip of the tailbone
scrape wrist
trip toe.
Laces taut
wrap bearings
tug grooves in ankles.
She rubs cream onto green purple knees shaving around stubble swell
pulls tights over thigh blotches
wheel-round fleshy.
Legs that bruise like plums.
- Self-Portrait with Bruises, pg. 88
* * *
Split skin
dragged a trail of elbow along the sidewalk
skipstones and beerglass nesting deep
bloodslip slick wrist /
mosquito lumps / cut cuticles /
sneakers scuff armhair /
black cotton shirt sleeve scraps /
sunburned flesh
off pavement
bikes tread tissue and sweat
with gum grit and saliva
sun baking forearm to asphalt
gravel fuses to bone
peel heatseals
sears limb to path
tarmac garnish
sidewalk scab
- Self-Portrait on Asphalt, pg. 94
October 7, 2020
Leak shows us how good small-house, local poetry books can be. I love everything about this book. It's so authentic and bare, dripping with intelligence that doesn't take itself too seriously. A language play of the body from the mind of an interested, flawed millennial (at least that's what I understood, having related constantly with the words and their manner of delivery; maybe better said "grad student" or "twenty-something"). The cover definitely drew me in. It's so inscrutable and harsh and monochromatic, but discernible in its organic structure. The book has just enough structure to reflect something similar with layers of meaning. I'll definitely have to take another read to really get some of the more difficult poems. The work is just accessible enough, which I think is one of its strengths. Excited for Hargreaves's future works.
December 4, 2024
After a semester of reading poetry, Kate Hargreaves' Leak felt very refreshing. Many of the poems reminded me of Harryette Mullen's work found in Recylopedia, but with a distinct focus on the body, while still focusing on some similar themes. If you want a nice read to contemplate on, this is an excellent collection to pick up.
Read
June 29, 2016I received this book as part of a door prize at the Canadian Writers Summit. A great prize, including a number of books by Canadian authors I had never encountered before, mostly from small publishing houses.
I don't read a lot of poetry, although I am actively seeking it out. I loved the cover of this book and the basic premise. Hargreaves poetry is blunt and I don't doubt it is better received when read a loud. Much of it reminds me of slam poetry - the emphasis is on sound and some word play (including puns), rather than metaphor or imagery. It didn't work for me for the most part, although I did enjoy the pieces that began each section. I had no emotional connection to the works - not a knock against the author, just personal preference. I am donating my copy to my local library, in the hopes it finds a wider audience. I'm glad I tried it, but it just wasn't to my taste.
I don't read a lot of poetry, although I am actively seeking it out. I loved the cover of this book and the basic premise. Hargreaves poetry is blunt and I don't doubt it is better received when read a loud. Much of it reminds me of slam poetry - the emphasis is on sound and some word play (including puns), rather than metaphor or imagery. It didn't work for me for the most part, although I did enjoy the pieces that began each section. I had no emotional connection to the works - not a knock against the author, just personal preference. I am donating my copy to my local library, in the hopes it finds a wider audience. I'm glad I tried it, but it just wasn't to my taste.
March 14, 2016
I didn't actually read it so much as the author read a handful of the poems at an open mic night I attended.
I enjoyed them but I did not feel compelled to pick up a copy of the book and read the whole thing.
Kate Hargreaves seems like a lovely person, by the way.
I enjoyed them but I did not feel compelled to pick up a copy of the book and read the whole thing.
Kate Hargreaves seems like a lovely person, by the way.
May 18, 2016
Plays with words and images in a way that delights me.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews