EMPATHY
Cattle herd, rattled, rumbled the pale gravel roads
Rushed through orchards, trampled shriveled apples
A spectacular view Where I was looking
I saw a cow’s brown eyes—an exchange
of glances flooded with panic & choice
Then, she strutted right up to me
I swallowed hard a short lifetime
When she flipped her tail at flitting flies
I rubbed her crown to take her mind off it
I was no hero She was courageous
She broke route to inspect me, a non-obstacle
I stood still & she nestled my neck
with her wet snout I didn’t counter
She bolted, rejoined her kind
Her speed increased to anywhere I wasn’t
SPECTATORS
for Rich
I worry for my friend, who falls
asleep to nature documentaries.
Calm narration coupled with abrupt
snake or lion attacks. He exposes himself
to tragic animal deaths as the cost
of doing business in the world we make
ourselves watch, footage edited
to seem more brutal. We watch adventurers
fight the outdoors, gift their senses
to arctic winds. I wrote that kites
float on their strings like green
inchworms across a frostbitten
sky. If people had the power to split
in two & clone, no more stigma
for failure, but bigger problems.
Which came first, consequences
or predicting the worst? Before sleep
I see the still slides of my mistakes
magnified, blurry molecules crowd
around like sheep with puffy coats.
Tragedy plus time equals numb
doom-scrolling, jaws agape, rage
against the performance of outrage.
We must let apathy abandon us,
take lessons from cankerworms
spinning in the sun, waiting
to cling to your collar. Spectators
waiting to rot in the moonlight.
All that we do by inaction, malice
that’s common. To wake from dreams
to learn trees grew teeth, animals
aren’t spectacle. To learn landscapes
& trails you explored were simulations,
what a man wanted nature to be.
Reading Note:
As of late my reading time is split between fiction, short fiction, non-fiction, and the occasional poetry collection. Here are some books, including recents and all-timers, that moved me: Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange, This Is Vegan Propaganda by Ed Winters, The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado, Optic Subwoof by Douglas Kearney, The Four Questions of Melancholy by Tomaž Šalamun, Bliss Montage by Ling Ma, The Collected Stories of Diane Williams, Never Whistle at Night edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr., American Inmate by Justin Rovillos Monson, Whereas by Layli Long Soldier, Perennial Fashion Presence Falling by Fred Moten, Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung (translated by Anton Hur), Determined by Robert M. Sapolsky, The Golden Spruce by John Vaillant, Neighbors and Other Stories by Diane Oliver, The Employees by Olga Ravn (translated by Martin Aitken), and A Day in the Life of Abed Salama by Nathan Thrall.
Fall Poetry Album Links:
Table of Contents * Kaitlyn Airy * Stephen Danos * Haley Joy Harris * Tommy O'Rourke * Eric Pankey * Max Schliecher * Ken Walker
