Pricked with a spear and swaddled in olive oil
I am a witness in my pair
The expensive salt, I imagine reserved for special occasions
Snows down on us both
I was taken from my home
I lived in dark and damp
And when I was pulled from the ground the light stung
I was put together with three others, who I did not know
And still do not particularly like
Packaged in plastic with holes
For many sun cycles we sat together
In a box in a colour close to roots but sharper
That burns like the light when noise arrives
Then gives the caress of darkness despite the cold
We are selected together, just us two
By a woman who rolls us in her palms
Feels our weight
The stabbing begins but I feel shock, not pain
I try to listen, I feel the exhaustion in her words
It’ll take a while, she says
What do you want on yours?
I do not hear what he says in return
But it prompts her to set us down and spin
Seriously?
We don’t have that
Are you going to the shops? No? Didn’t think so
I hear him this time
He makes a tunnel of wind with his mouth
Raises his hands in surrender
Don’t do that, she says
Don’t act like I’m being unreasonable
You always…
She pauses, starts over
I sometimes feel that…
I’ll have whatever, he says. I’m just hungry.
Well it’ll take at least an hour, probably an hour and a half
Don’t, you know this, what do you expect me to do
You could have got dinner started earlier, I know it’s my night but I worked late
She is talking and I am just a potato, but I do rather feel
That she’s not being entirely fair
A bit emotional, I’d say
And perhaps he would just like to come home after a long day
And be given something to nourish him
There’s something in your brain, she says
That makes you forget I work hard too
I’m tired too
He sighs. I don’t doubt you work hard
I’ve never said that, I’ve never done anything to make you believe that
She has picked me back up, is rubbing oil in little circles
Just go to the other room
You don’t get it, it’s fine
I don’t think it’s fine, as she puts me back on the tray, opens a door, and slides me and the other inside a room
The door closes and I can no longer hear
But I watch her through the glass
As my insides ache and my skin cracks and stretches
I watch her sit down and turn her head to look out into the dark of the garden
And I could wonder what she’s thinking
But I am distracted by the way my flesh is disintegrating
The way I’m un-becoming
I cannot scream
I am just a potato
I watch her put her head in her hands, massage her temples but without oil or seasoning
She looks at her phone, disappears into the glow
I am glad for the holes in me
Because something is building, a premonition, a pressure
I am something different
My life before so far away
I wonder why she’s sitting in my view
And not with him
If had a partner I had chosen with me now, I would push myself towards them
We would be together in this hell
We’re taken out, the freedom so cool
I will never be the potato I was before
But that is okay
She slices a cross into my body
I burst, I bloom, an eruption of steam
I have never felt so alive
And dead at the same time