Rosie Garland

Autobiography as a Lafayette LX5000 polygraph machine

I am hair-trigger poised for deviation
from the strictest letter of.
Truth is simple.
There is no need to fear, no need
for alarm. Give me your hand.

I have no difficult questions. Are you
or are you not?
That word again:
innocent.

The problem with opening the mind
is everything falls out.

I am forged steel.
I shed doubt, discussion. I cut through
the bloat of compassion, your weakness.

I hear you say the battles have all been won,
I see you relegate me to a museum
of hot and cold wars.

I taste you. I am expert in waiting
for your first slip: Pulse, breath,
sweat, involuntary twitching
of the muscles.

Lay down your burdens
and confess. Give me everything
you have. My needle hovers, primed with ink.

Based in Manchester UK, Rosie Garland writes poetry, short and long fiction, song lyrics and things that fall between & outside. She sings with post-punk band The March Violets. Her poetry collection What Girls Do in the Dark (Nine Arches Press) was shortlisted for the Polari Prize 2021, & Val McDermid has named her one of the most compelling LGBT+ writers in the UK today. http://www.rosiegarland.com/

Rosie wrote the following about ‘Autobiography as a Lafayette LX5000 polygraph machine’:

What is truth? Is there such a thing as absolute truth? Who gets to decide?
Big questions (the kind that keep me awake me at 4am). However, I’m not a fan of ‘big ideas’ poems that float around with no grounding in the concrete. When I’m working on a poem, something that needs to happen is for a concept to find its image. After watching a PBS documentary about the history of the Polygraph machine, I knew I’d found my story. In particular, the fascinating tensions, double-dealing, personal agendas and downright lies involved in its development. I enjoy playing with Point of View, and it feels right for the poem to speak in the voice of the machine.