The ‘Torn’ sequence is inspired by the work of American painter Mary Behrens in her series of distorted and reassembled photographs of refugees called ‘Run’.

TORN

Someone
someone took your life
your life and tore it down the middle
down the middle then crossways into smaller
smaller pieces as if it was a letter
a letter from an unfaithful lover
pieces flying to the wind.

So now you know that the gods, the fates
the fates, the gods
care less for you than a scrap of paper
a scrap of paper.

And though you run about
run about and catch them all
all blowing and raining about you
like ticker-tape
tickertape
you can’t see how
how you could begin
begin to stick them together
stick them together
to make a life again.

So you tuck them carefully
carefully into your pocket and walk
and walk
and walk.