Re-Wilding Under Those Conditions
Stick this time – as in, half-formed century – with a pin
into the butterfly thorax, into embolism:
there is not a word in every language for
extinction event
but sometimes there are a few words for burning
neiamgla'tijig, they appear burning
nu'gwa'l'g, I set it
on fire
gaqoqtegl, they are
burned through
a cathedral into skeleton
irritation into sensation
ozone into nothing
and it’s not just forests – nipugtl – that burn, that fall
and it’s not just the prisoners whose hands
hold this water
hold this this water they hold
for no money, for nothing –
Mu' nugu' pugweltnug nipugt esgwiaq ula gm'tginug.
There isn't much forest left here in our territory
but there are ashes, remnants,
golf courses smoking in cinders
more beautiful than barbed wire
on any clear-skied day, by far –
what is more beautiful than
every golf course burning
and re-wilding with the
things that grow
under those conditions
(wildflowers probably?
mushrooms and moss and all of it –
blooming like seizing)
after the fire was gone after hands
held water and mansions
became lanterns
a snake
was found jaws open and
hissing having bitten
the fire
as it burned
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