POETRY: KIM GOLDBERG

A 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/