
Animals

In Horizon, the globetrotting writer charts encounters with diverse cultures, climes, and the animal kingdom, suggesting how we might proceed more gently in the world.
The internet does a better job of documenting / the way we feel when something soft, especially / a mammal, is very cute, than poetry does.

The writer discusses what Laika, the first Soviet space dog, can teach us about companionship and loneliness.

Yunes were human once. / They nursed babies and baked bread and made love beneath the shade of the willow tree. / Then they were drowned in the bog on the edge of town. / The marshlands kept them flawless. / Their skin tanned tight as a drum skin, sealing their spirits inside like caged dogs.

the birdcage is gasproof I have an important message for you the birds are wired /
peace is blind as teargas love your lungs will not collapse but swell

We went into the garden to pick out a poison blocker / We saw fish mint / A lizard’s tail / A chameleon plant / Your heartleaf / My fishwort

Vast plates shifted littler ones / with constant sounds and heat terrible / Then there was a cleft and so a river

“Poetry is contested space, and the battles about what is allowed to go in and stay out are important.”
I am getting so used to this island it’s becoming like second nurture to me.

“It’s so important to make your own little specks of peace around you. It’s a matter of being an idiot.”
Leonard changed lanes without using his blinker, as was his habit.
Woodchuck was wandering on a path through woods one day when his leg caught in some vines.
