Wisterical
The shrieks of children
tumbling in the roaring body of the ocean
is glee.
But fill me with dread—glee? the ocean? children?
And the hysterical
wisteria. That frantic and purple
emissary of the encroaching jungle.
I think the jungle will win, wind—in the end—its tensile vines
around the throats and raised swords of sun scorched monuments,
collapse the flag poles and balustrades, whatever stakes
are planted there, will charge
the volition of its green abundance, wild against the wild
volition of the frothing ocean. Marry it. What children
will march in that conjugal procession with crowns of kelp
and frantic purple flowers?
Copyright © 2020 by Genya Turovskaya. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on December 21, 2020, by the Academy of American Poets.
“Some years ago I was traveling in Costa Rica. On the Caribbean coast, outside of the town of Puerto Viejo, there is a beach called Playa Negra where the jungle meets the sea. The dense vegetation of the jungle and the churning surf seem to reach for one another across a narrow strip of sand. I imagined a post-Anthropocene future when humans lose their battle for dominance over nature and the jungle and the sea reclaim the world. I wondered if there would be a human presence to witness this.”
—Genya Turovskaya
Genya Turovskaya
Genya Turovskaya was born in Kiev, Ukraine, and grew up in New York City. A poet and translator, she holds an MFA from Bard College.