POEM FOR MARTHE REED

Marthe Reed with husband Michael Kalish, photo by Laura Mullen

Devastation is newly-defined by the passing of extraordinary human being Marthe Reed, ever a source of balm in the world and poetry world.  I am mostly stunned into speechlessness. But of course a poem erupted for--and with--her.  This is based on the topics we last discussed through Facebook Messenger:

You Brought Me to the Mangrove Forest

—with and for Marthe Reed

In the Sundarbans of South Bangladesh and India

the climate keeps worsening. We bemoan

across our paper-cluttered e-desks as you adopt

a collage technique from Mei-mei Berssenbrugge

“Is my Black Radish subscription up to date?”

You make notes on small pieces of paper—side-effects

of chapbook-making. You pause to hug an animal

before returning to the IPCC Synthesis Report

while discussing native plant species, literature and

ethics. Always ethics. “Should this be reviewed by

Galatea Resurrects?” Always literature. The Hungry Tide

by Amitav Ghosh, Travels In The Mugal Empire by François

Bernier, and Schizophrene by Bhanu Kapil. How to own

responsibility? How to inspire an inspired poem. A country

‘s name becomes synonym for deferred responsibility

Exhausted from gardening tiredness… but “Then I made

a strawberry birthday cake for a friend!”  Prepare by

laying out the words on the dining room table. “How many

participants in Anthropocene?” "Over a hundred." Arrange

conversation through a juxtaposition of texts. “Can I order

30 more copies of AMNESIA?” Do smoothen that grammar

New poetry anticipated from Jaimie, Anastacia and Jared

We’re marrying fragments to each other. Visiting Portland

for your daughter, you observe, “I am nearby.” I am nearby

I feel you in the mangrove forest, charming the Crocodilus

porosus, the Panthera tigris, the Varanus salvator, the Platinista

Gangetica and the Lepidochelys olivacea. Always, you are near