NUCLEAR by Sofija

NUCLEAR

there are a lot of ways / to go from clean to dirty

refusing to brush teeth / eating flowers / wearing lace underwear / losing virginities

it’s absurd / how quickly everyone can change their mind to suit an agenda

whenever I eat flowers soil gets stuck in my teeth / gritty

like popping candy, plaque & his condolences / the prime minister would say i’m dirty

unladylike / vitriolic / ungracious

i shouldn’t be so unkept / but there are too many chemicals in hair dye & mascara

do chemicals in food not count? / lies on mobiles? / nuclear waste in soil? / the worst air quality

in the world? / the prime minister’s forceful hands? / selfish prayers? / poisonous voice?

nightmares are less scary than pollution & the economy / turning the sky to

the colour of my eyes / a murky dam / before it became iridescent

remember oil on bitumen? / we thought it was pretty

took photos for instagram / where we are even prettier

add filters so that the colours are brighter / my eyes can be purple if I want them to

my teeth can be whiter / cheekbones higher / i’m a liar

because sometimes i don’t care about the chemicals in new things / their permeable satisfaction

helps me forget that they will never break down cleanly / even though I can see them swirling

forever in that damn dam / but that’s not how you delete it

four billion years for nuclear waste to become safe to absorb / it’s in the dam & the soil

inside me too / maybe out of sight, out of mind applies here?

because I can submerge myself into the damn / become stained in a reflective dull rainbow

& still the politicians can’t see / we are the same as the dead fish

no matter how desperately we pretend that we are not

Find more from Sofija over on Instagram @heavilycrazed & @sofijaaaaaaaa

Executive Producers

Daniel Henson

Karolina Ristevski

Sue White

Elliot Cameron