Poem of the Week: 7.25.24
"Shed Chronology"
SHED CHRONOLOGY
by Ricky Novaes de Oliveira
after Wanda Coleman; after Wisława Szymborska; for Sonya Massey
july the field has boiled the spring
july when part of a crowd I notice my body
july a captive frog didn’t even squirm
july nothing never happens out here, but everything
already happened. this perpetual
perspective
july the eternal contradiction rebukes revolution
july explaining magic without words:
a hope submerged
under ancestral happenstance
july please don’t come back
blazing. it’s already
so hot
july there is no more shadow
to hide, so bodies are traded for
bombed-out fields of bliss
july negatives on display, being undone by
july sweating. this specific self
staring now into dark
with lamplight, with burning
muttering an ending monologue
july , why?
july this soul and not the rest
this now and Saturday
of all days to die
july the bullet has boiled the point
This poem is a collage of three sources.
Wanda Coleman wrote a poem called “Zed Chronology” that was published in 2001.
Sonya Massey was heinously murdered a few weeks ago this July and died in the same Springfield hospital that her family member once died in after being lynched by a mob in 1908.
Wisława Szymborska wrote this poem “Astonishment” and I encountered it in the collection Map: Collected and Last Poems published by City Lights in 2016.
I sat down to write about July scrolling through photographed memories and recent texts, and I wanted to write a happy summer poem, and I try not to write too specifically about current events because it always feels like I am choosing to highlight one thing and not all the others, and this is what came out.
Acabingly, Ricky