Written piece
Threadbare
Calvin Goh
Singapore
About this piece
My submission is inspired by the thread as something that exists in-between. It explores various definitions of the word and how connections can be maintained and severed by the hypothetical thread. It aims to promote perspective-taking and reconsideration of relationships.
The natty jumper, held together by the whisper of a thread.
The body, a miracle of muscle and fibrous thread.
The words in this sentence, the letters in the word,
made sensible only by the threads that link them.
Relationships, kept buoyant by the mutual thread of understanding.
A notion; floating, weightless until threaded with order.
A nation; ignored, overlooked unless threaded with others.
Threads exist in a constant state of flux.
Noun, verb. Subject, object.
Literal, figurative. Tangible, intangible.
Durable and delicate. Stiff, and pliant.
Part of a whole, and the sum of its parts.
Visible and invisible, all around us.
Formed with great deliberation; undone at a whim.
Lying in-between, it plays arbiter to both sides.
Passive, yet active. Innocent, but guilty.
In rational thought, it organises, presenting order and structure.
In rational thought, it constrains, suppressing innovation and creativity.
It connects—binds.
Separates
/
frees.
In its presence, everything is political.
In its absence, everything unravels.
There is no pause, only progress. Thread is meaning in motion.
Tenuous, temporary, suspended in a state of impermanence.
It promises safety as much as it threatens it.
Everything, strung together,
dangles
by
a
thread.
It is as strong as it is weak, wrought as it is
by the conflicting forces of internal and external loci.
It stores tension, but has neither alliance, nor dalliance. Instead,
it performs its role, neutrally, partially—connecting, linking, intertwining,
until it doesn’t.
Thread lightly.