Blue Monday, Part 2

The ‘Blue Monday’ phenomenon claims that the third Monday in January is the most depressing day of the year. The equation underpinning the theory was created by psychologist and life coach Dr. Cliff Arnall in 2005 for a press campaign for Sky Travel. Though widely discredited as pseudoscience, ‘Blue Monday’ continues to be adopted by companies and brands. These poems are part of an ongoing response to this claim.

octagonal meat

20 12 18

Yellow, two spines.
bending in the
wind two ears of
corn. we’re alone
here carving
a circle of
pineapple before
the thing goes
out of date.
putting its meatless
head in some
water, saying
please fucking
grow

Habib

04 03 19

What will save the people of Iran
he asks
watching me fold a tea towel

swamp folding

9 01 21

a swamp folds onto itself

the way

a pool draws a line

how do the birds learn to circle that way

between flat roofs

see them floating

up the

aqueduct,

busy gathering

your tightrope

in loops

***

Zara Joan Miller is a poet and artist. Recent contributions include Another Gaze, Fieldnotes journal and Autograph. Screenings of her films include Soft Rio (Marseille Underground Film Festival, Marseille, France, 2021), horsecity (xviix.com, 2020; Centre of Gravity, Bristol, UK 2020) and HEARSE #2 (xviix.com, 2020). Zara co-programmes CEREBELLUM at Cafe OTO with Evie Ward.