Entangled Anemones
this text piece was created in response to the Red Sea and it’s changing ecosystems. the poem looks for ways in which the narrator is going home, or looking for filial systems in the coral structures along the coast of the sea. the threads seek to make visible the threads of logic that create the form of the poem, though the audience moves from a wandering/desperation to an illegible answer in the second poem. the viewer is invited to maneuver the text — is there an answer waiting in the second cluster? is there truly direction on the page?
exhibited with Speculating the Environment (2023), curated by Claire Donato and Audrey Lindsey, Brooklyn, NY.
first cluster
i propagate anemones in still wateri blow on the surface to try to give themsomething they don’t know yet to miss — salteddewy lovers at the very bottom of the red sea start the firststeps towards each other. back leg braced for impact, front legmeandering. the sand echoes the procession, wafting up & floodingdown across the depths they smile at each other a wedding beat oh brideblushes hotly & the air above the surface undulates ululating watch the ringedfish dart in & out of home not yet aware that when picked up & bagged & forlorntheir mothers keen, sending them with small attachments i sweep & pick out & place inmason jars of dead water & the fish are alone & the anemones starving & i, like all things, weep
second cluster — the illegible answer
go back to the topic of anemonesin large fish filled tanks theyare fished out i net them with my handsyou see they still them with my handsthey are home with all the space it’s not likespace that looks like there is none this is all we doyou know better than to still them you don’t you seethey turn to brown slime upon last breaththat i see nothing when i wash them down the sinkthe water rushes cold unyielding they never reallyall the turns this is a heavy hooded forestthe point is youcan never reallyclearly read hearor see there is onlywandering wanderingforever meanderingmovement isintegralacross the page
