Discursive Repetition
Andrea Spofford
we will disaster our repetition chiasmus like a river catch-and-release the same as sonatas as ring structures in water we will dismiss shallow wade flood the banks of the Mississippi and oxbow first left then right we will brake
as in a river brake
as in sites of archaeological
importance not
as in ceasing
ending motion
the nature of physics energy
transferred but not destroyed
atoms replacing atoms replacing
matter only shifting into something else
we are more complex and when we disaster we disaster in a big way we disaster for keeps we explode and destroy and burn the length of sign systems we call fire ecology we call sinkhole we call tornado we call earthquake we call tsunami we call avalanche we call heat wave we call blizzard we call volcano we call epidemic we call oil spill we call mud flow we call asbestos we call coal mining we call Three Mile Island we call meltdown we call ecocide wild frenzied furious as gods chained
after it is done we will come back to mitochondria
seed germination soil strata ring structure sign systems
moss spreading glass & crystals natural equivalents moths & bees
or,
the original meaning of disaster—an unfavorable planet; a failed star
Structural Patterns
beneath moldering leaves wanton soil lurches—an arched back against spindles, a shudder, this corner of ground hovering beneath widow-maker branches (how cardinals, orange-beaked, watch from roofs hungered)
decay is to desire is to shift/change
to red-bellied blue
& yellow-limbed
finches and feathers wanting
worms & mites & moths
I want
to make sense of it all, this semantic shift
my hands in dirt, caked bare-knuckled bleeding soil
small bird bodies to crowd and feast, clear this wreck and wetness, bring light to ground
exposure, naked immodesty, raw striated earth pocked with footprints
to create from disposition, small worlds swept into trash bags or leaf piles or paper boxes, to feed from destruction, to thrive from a bare slate
recently birthed & keening
Andrea Spofford writes poems and essays, some of which can be found or are forthcoming in burntdistrict, The Portland Review, Rust+Moth, Sugar House Review, Revolver, Vela Magazine, Composite Arts Magazine, Puerto del Sol, Redactions, Red Paint Hill Quarterly, and more. She has chapbooks available from dancing girl press and Red Bird Chapbooks and her first book, The Pine Effect, is available from Red Paint Hill Publishing. Andrea is poetry editor for Zone 3 Press and lives in Tennessee. Find her online at http://andreaspofford.com or on twitter @andspoff.