Elsbeth Pancrazi
POEM INTERRUPTED BY THE ARRIVAL OF OTHER LIFEFORMS
Significant genetic differences between the roots, leaves and branches of a tree
indicate a change during that tree’s lifetime
This type of change was not inherited from a parent and will not be passed on to a child
They wanted us to focus on adaptation, the good that comes out of difficult conditions
When the bees ignore your flowers, fuck em. Find a way to pollinate by wind
We were asked to do it in a way that didn’t overtly celebrate diversity
If you want advice, you should ask for money (pause to blow a spider off my notes)
Most bees are generalists but a few have specialized
Does this appear to mean something in this context?
People of the future are going to wonder
why none of the reports describe what it was like
holding hands with trees every day (here several words become illegible)
smelling pitch on our fingertips, three hundred years
of ambition, investment and hubris–what did it feel?
When I saw the hawk come take that bird, I only saw the starling
as a scuffle–I only saw how beautiful the hawk was as it rose
into the upper branches of the black cottonwood
(first tree to be genetically sequenced)
In the evenings the leaves can be heard asking one another
how do paradigm shifts occur and how can we contribute?