[What if...]
What if
the jungle and swampy woods
cleared and drained
drench the abuses
puddles studded with striders
a shadow where the moon once was
What if things
unlivable?
Please
stagnant water
speaks
always
susurrates under canopy
tambourine rattles
like flat crack
trouble ground
despite an everything
to beneath bayou
to naming from cargo
to chirp dying city
to halloing the wasteland
not better-than
not clean or
marshes to be
ever
impure
From Swamps Fly (Lawndale Art Center, 2021) and The Every Wild (Mouthfeel Press, 2024) by JD Pluecker. Copyright © 2021 by JD Pluecker. Used with the permission of the author.