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Poem of the Week: ‘Chiaroscuro’ by Isabelle Baafi

14 October 2024

Our Faber Poem of the Week is ‘Chiaroscuro’, from Isabelle Baafi’s forthcoming debut collection, Chaotic Good.

Chaotic Good is a piercing debut about how we are made, how we get lost and how we find new selves. Framed by the story of escape from a toxic marriage, the poems focus on the incremental ways in which power accumulates, shifts and is relinquished within both home and community. Incisive, rigorous and artful, Isabelle Baafi reminds us of the importance of self-determination, and how, when we feel most eroded, we might discover what we need deep within ourselves: ‘This time and every time, I was the code I needed to find my way back.’

Chiaroscuro ask me about my first crush the sand my brother piled on me till i couldn’t breathe he gave me a hammer i didn’t use it but i took its power son rise son threat son drinks the rain that pools in collarbones mother’s hands raking my scalp yesterday i pressed her sponge to the lake to clean it now the lake is gone it is easier to lasso the moon than to help your father lay down to die but what if the tomatoes never went bad what if splinters are a warning to run i once found a ransom note in my ear the face in the photo was mine i pawned everything went to the drop-off point no one ever came to set me free give me a bed with no crumbs in it pluck the fishbones from my throat i forgot where i hid the matches and after that it was easier just to live in the dark

Copyright © Isabelle Baafi. Used by permission of Faber & Faber Ltd. All rights reserved.

Chaotic Good by Isabelle Baafi is out on 10 April 2025.