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From “Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return”

1966 –

            our first lightning
strike was convulsive
         we felt sad for our
       violence after
      exterminating
      wolves and bison
      we do not need a
       doctor to say
        dance dance
         dance before
           the song
             runs out
               learn how
               to live so
              wilderness
             never
            becomes
          mythology
        we put them
      in parks to be
    wild on purpose
  a museum of fur
fangs and hooves

Born on January 1, 1966, in Topeka, Kansas, CAConrad is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return (Wave Books, 2024), You Don’t Have What It Takes to Be My Nemesis (Penguin UK, 2023), Amanda Paradise: Resurrect Extinct Vibration (Wave Books, 2021); While Standing in Line for Death (Wave Books, 2017); Ecodeviance: (Soma)tics for the Future Wilderness (Wave Books, 2014); Philip Seymour Hoffman (were you high when you said this?) (Worms Press, 2014); A Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon: New (Soma)tics (Wave Books, 2012); and The Book of Frank (Wave Books, 2010), recipient of the Gil Ott Book Award. They also authored a book of nonfiction essays, Advanced Elvis Course (Soft Skull Press, 2009).

Themes

About this Poem

“My poems are wild creatures standing on the bottom of the page, vibrating in the center of their bodies, and this one is from 72 new poems I began in Seattle during the Covid lockdown. I shared my meals with the crows by the window. One of them, in particular, liked to eat with me. I could hand it food and was eventually allowed to pet its beak. Soon enough, the crow started bringing me gifts: twigs, plastic bits, dried cat food, and a piece of gold foil. This experience was one of my favorite connections with a wild animal. This poem is from my forthcoming book, Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return (Wave Books, 2024).”
—CAConrad

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More by this poet

Neptune.4

no one knows where I am in the morning and I like that

set my periscope on breath of dreaming tyrants

heir to a forest

do you mean fortune

no I mean forest caressing wound of earth surrounding it

twelve trees is a forest these days

clinging to dirt between

shopping malls and banks

CAConrad

2017

Pluto.1

the pearl starts over

a new grain of sand

we are going to find

in the planet of blue

a freshly written eviction note

a sash hanging off the horse

told the story without you

the kind of children we deserve who rob us in our sleep

we never need to believe in anything again

they take ou

CAConrad

2017

Home.3

journeyman who

denies everything

even the journey

lost in a pile of

needles and spools

the only trees in this

desert are books

a bottle made of

ideas hits

the throat of the system

tell us about that gold watch you dropped into hot coals

shame’s a balance beam

CAConrad

2017

Poems

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From “Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return”

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