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      November 22, 2015Perpetuation of the SpeciesJessica Goodfellow

      For preservation, some say salt. Some say ice.
       
      A deer bounds across a meadow, balancing
      its bone chandelier: ice.
       
      There are lakes which have islands
      which have lakes: ice.
       
      In Wakayama, crows are worshipped
      as gods: salt.
       
      Venus rotates backwards, and slowly,
      dizzy with the counterclockwise logic of desire.
      A day there is longer than a year: salt.
       
      The Japanese have more than 50 words for rain: ice.
       
      Why everyone hates mimes: salt.
       
      When we say refugee crisis, we mean the sum of the parts
      refuses to be whole: salt on ice.
       
      The frosted window panes of memory,
      the brackish leakages of longing—
       
      whichever sibling dies, it’s the wrong one.

      from Poets Respond

      Jessica Goodfellow

      “This poem is about one human being looking at another human being, and denying her refuge. It’s about the dichotomy of classifications (not my nationality, not my religion) that allow that to happen. I began with Robert Frost’s “Some say the world will end in fire, Some say ice.” and turning that around to consider the dichotomy of items that preserve rather than destroy, or ought to. But do they? And how arbitrary are the dichotomies we cling to. And what do they perpetuate?”

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