UPDATE: I’ve just seen that Baby Teeth Journal has their blackout poetry competition on again. So, if you think you can do better than my entry from last year (and let’s face, probably all of you could), head over to their site now! You have until 1 March 2022 to enter.

The System

the system we inhabit; unworkable.

if we were to think, it is difficult not to gain some idea of scale.

the situation much too close to ignore the difficulties

the contribution only increases

another planet, closer to the Sun.

and the picture is complete.

I was quite late to the blackout poetry party, so this is one of my first attempts at playing around with it. You can see a much more spectacular response to this same source text at Baby Teeth Journal, June 2021 (Source text: Chapter 3 – The Solar System).