Ecotrigger Warning, and: Pine Island Glacier Crack, and: On Returning a Stolen Garment Bag
- Ecotrigger Warning, and: Pine Island Glacier Crack, and: On Returning a Stolen Garment Bag
ECOTRIGGER WARNING
Please be advised: this poemmay contain references toenvironmental destruction. It mightsuggest inferiority of the Homosapiens. Although you may not feelformally threatened by this poemyour concern for fellow humanswho could fear for their safetyprompting very public reactionsmight upset you. Poetic formscan be violent, traumatic: your lifebeyond this poem, unexpected,misunderstood, might be in peril.Your learning could be disrupted.If you have known colonialismyou might be triggered. This poemis liable to make you squirm.Very possibly, rising temperatureswill make us change our lives. [End Page 195]
PINE ISLAND GLACIER CRACK
In the abandoned homes of cootsnarrow high barren valleys, the icemore reference than metaphor hiding outin cellars with our canned foodspeaking in words or gobs of paintcounting the number of meteorites strikingin Spain, on our devices, in the mudhardening in the door yard. In safety,the whispers. Turning over a spadefulof rich soil in dreams, the wormsinside the clods inside the rocksin the walls, eating their way outside.You, filling a bucket with cherriesa kerchief tied around your head,by the burned-out infantry carrierat the margins of the field, in the woodsover the hill, on the other shore. [End Page 196]
ON RETURNING A STOLEN GARMENT BAG
a series of clear, sharp, variant phrasesseparated by morning pauseson the fence outside the windowoccupies your thoughts before you noticeits tinkling, shards and syrupy loopsreminding you to think things as housesbeyond the warmest April of the centuryphilosophical, resourceful, delicatehanding your friend his garment bagfull of unread poems in the dreamlike a concert in miniature the robinbrings you into the day, singing tsit!stop your dream and listen, I’m hereoutside the house, watching, revisingmy water music, tsit, get to work [End Page 197]
Jonathan Skinner founded the journal Ecopoetics. His books include Chip Calls (Little Red Leaves, 2014), Birds of Tifft (Blazevox, 2011), Warblers (Albion, 2010) and Political Cactus Poems (Palm Press, 2005). He teaches writing, theory, and literature in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick.
