turtles under ice
my bubble:
encircling
exclusive
occupies
existence
excluding
anyone
else awake
unnoticed
(This poem was in part inpired by Turtle Under Ice, by del Juleah Rosario, review to follow soonish)
I like that tricubes as a form can occasionally be read in more than one way. If we add a comma after ‘existence,’ a period after ‘excluding,’ and a question mark after ‘unnoticed,’ the poem reads one way. If a period comes after ‘else,’ it reads another way. (I am also deeply annoyed to have used exclusive and excluding in the same poem. These are the fruits of quick drafting – and finally, after NPM is nearly over, I’ve gotten the poem part down to about fifteen minutes…) I also think of the person who allegedly brought a weapon into a dangerous place this weekend – their manifesto, if genuine and unstaged, saddens me. How tragic that anyone suffering this current moment would think they suffer it alone. How fragile we are, locked in separate darkness, in our bubbles. Is anyone else awake?