A LATEX GLOVE’S LAST WORDS FROM AN AUSTRALIAN LANDFILL
By Lesh Karan
Here I lie
like a deflated balloon
~~~~~Once I was stretched
over warm flesh
with a snap
my talc-like dust commingling
with human cells
now I just feel an impression
of the life held
~~~~~Once
and only once
my index soft-pressed
a prostate
like checking the ripeness
of a plum
in my search
for threat
~~~~~My snug skin
let the doc remain
dextrous, alert
to sensation
like a condom
and like a condom
I am all about protection
though I’d rather be
like a hand—sanitised
used again and again—
oh can you imagine
the litigation?
~~~~~I can only imagine
all the lives
I could’ve had
like the doc’s shiny pen
I’d sluice open wounds
nick off stitches, airlift
babies, massage
hearts, cradle
polypropylene syringes
brimmed with blood, morphine
something beige
like saline
wipe surgical steel benches, stack
piles of chicken-avo sandwiches
in the hospital canteen
~~~~~I could go on
and on
like this landfill
discovering the possibilities
thanks to my doppelgangers
who surround me—
a sea of slack tongues
recounting their disposable lives
though some haven’t had a life
to speak of
expiring in their box—
a handy bin
a readymade coffin
So here we lie
each one of us from a box
of millions of boxes
Which is to say, each
one of billions thrown
across this land
each year
~~~~~our ghost hands leaching
thiurams, zinc oxide, sulphur, carbamates
as we break apart
into micro latex
in this rotting heap
of heat and effluvium—
after keeping you at millimetres distance
from the danger
of each other—
our flecks of white
or nitrile blue
like worms, plankton, bone meal
feeding the flora-fauna-earth—
you
ON INSPIRATION
On reading the theme for this project, a latex glove immediately came to mind. It seemed full of creative possibilities. I wanted to explore medical waste in a way that wasn’t simply retelling a familiar story of microplastics, but still could evoke it. During my research, I discovered that latex, too, breaks down into micro particles—micro latex—and that set me on course to tell the glove’s story.
Writing from the glove’s perspective allowed me to weave scientific and environmental realities. The glove could ‘speak’ its experiences, recalling both mundane and dramatic medical moments in a tactile, humorous and human way, while reflecting on its afterlife in a landfill. Through this lens, I could explore how bodies, tools, and the environment entwine, inviting readers to see how even a single disposable object is interconnected with the vast ecological narrative, one that we are not separate from.
LESH KARAN
Lesh Karan’s work has appeared in Meanjin, Island, Overland, Cordite, Rabbit and Best of Australian Poems, among other publications, and has been recognised in prizes including the Liquid Amber and Judith Wright poetry awards. A former pharmacist, she holds a Master of Creative Writing, Publishing and Editing from the University of Melbourne.