Jay Whittaker

Daily disposables

There’s a knack to removal,
a practised nip of forefinger and thumb
to pinch acuity from my eyes.
Overnight my contact lenses shrivel,
harden to brittle plastic. 
These tiddlywinks, 
slivers of Aegean blue, 
accrue for recycling 
in a jar under the sink. 

Every morning, a reminder 
my focus is commoditised.

Jay Whittaker lives and works in Edinburgh. Her debut poetry collection Wristwatch (Cinnamon Press)  was the Saltire Society Scottish Poetry Book of the Year 2018, and her second collection, Sweet Anaesthetist, will be published in October 2020. www.jaywhittaker.uk