7/18/2021 POETRY: KIM GOLDBERGA FEW BEARS I know of a few bears bears who seem thinner than normal they’ll slap your hands the bears are getting hungry Bears who seem thinner than normal these are facts: the bears are getting hungry I'm here to show you reality These are facts: The bears have been starving I'm here to show you reality along the shorelines where grizzlies have been The bears have been starving I'm not here to point fingers along the shorelines where grizzlies have been winners and losers in climate change I’m not here to point fingers without a necropsy winners and losers in climate change if you prefer looking at life from the end Without a necropsy we’re able to observe an emaciated mother if you prefer looking at life from the end in search of berries We’re able to observe an emaciated mother they’ll slap your hands in search of berries I know of a few bears. * (Assembled from recent news articles.) UNMOORED (after Hieronymus Bosch’s painting “Ship of Fools”) It always comes down to what has been lost – a cat, a mind, a god, a compass. Sometimes a silver sack of virtue spins away. Who has not shinnied up the spar pole to carve a fat drumstick from a roast goose? Or lusted for a pancake on a string? Or raised a flask to brain a pickled sinner in a ship as oval as a duck egg or an office for a head of state? We long for guidance from the owl above, our avatar of insight or scandal (depending on the century). We pluck the cherries, stir the winey sea, let the jester with an ass’s ears keep watch as we buck and sway into a melting glacier, its teal horizon a last reminder of the butterflies and jays. Kim Goldberg is the author of eight books of poetry and nonfiction. Her latest book is Devolution (Caitlin Press, 2020), surreal poems and fables of ecopocalypse. It was described as a "ferocious collection" in the Vancouver Sun. Kim's poetry has appeared in literary magazines and anthologies in North America and abroad including The Capilano Review, Literary Review of Canada, Dark Mountain, subTerrain and Riddle Fence. She chaired the Women's Eco-Poetry panel at the inaugural Cascadia Poetry Festival in Seattle. Kim holds a degree in biology and is an avid birdwatcher in Nanaimo BC. Twitter: @KimPigSquash. https://pigsquash.wordpress.com/
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