Jen Karetnick
A Character Who Does What You Might Do
After Brazilian Merganser by Frank Stella
Everything comes next: orange swirling flame of whimsy and impulse. That frog song wanting nothing but echo. A good name, borrowed from the sky. All the simple things which could have lived invisibly—the twig, the round moon, kneeling outside on this hard edge of human to find sturdy green, the damp shine a quiet flag swinging a pattern past the glass.
With its little frayed ends, a blockade of sheets and boards and wire, your head is a souvenir. Only the fishes know its size.
The river is famous to the fish. Aren’t you worried about them? Maybe they are planning something bad where the spaces between our worlds take root.
You could live inside this iceless region, turning and turning it as a point emerges, shrinking back from the walls, trying toarrange for truth to break it. Don’t hide what you do. Not ready to give it over, you will read this message and scream.
Notes:
This ekocento is composed of lines from thirty-one Naomi Shihab Nye poems.
Source poems, in the order they appear:​
“Jerusalem” from Red Suitcase. BOA Editions, Ltd., 1994.
“Burning the Old Year” from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems. Far Corner Books, 1995.
“Catalogue Army” from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems. Far Corner Books, 1995.
“Truth Serum” from You & Yours. BOA Editions Ltd., 2005.
“Blood” from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems. Far Corner Books, 1995.
“A Palestinian Might Say” from The Tiny Journalist, 2019.
“The Small Vases from Hebron” from Fuel. BOA Editions, Ltd., 1998.
“Different Ways to Pray” from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems. Far Corner Books, 1995.
“Every day as a wide field, every page” from Poetry. March 2021.
“Elementary” from The Tiny Journalist, 2019.
“The Words Under the Words” from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems. Far Corner Books, 1995.
“Yellow Glove” from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems. Far Corner Books, 1995.
“The Man Who Hated Trees” from Poetry, May 1982.
“Making a Fist” from Grape Leaves: A Century of Arab American Poetry. University of Utah Press, 1988.
“Supple Cord” from A MAZE ME, Greenwillow, 2005.
“Bees Were Better” from If Bees Are Few: A Hive of Bee Poems, Ed., James P. Lenfestey. University of
Minnesota Press, 2016.
“One Boy Told Me” from Fuel. BOA Editions, Ltd., 1998.
“Hugging the Jukebox” from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems. Far Corner Books, 1995.
“Famous” from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems. Far Corner Books, 1995.
“300 Goats” from Poetry. January 2016.
“The Story, Around the Corner” from You & Yours. BOA Editions Ltd., 2005.
“The Turtle Shrine Near Chittagong” from Fuel. BOA Editions, Ltd., 1998.
“Last August Hours Before the Year 2000” from You & Yours. BOA Editions Ltd., 2005.
“My Uncle’s Favorite Coffee Shop” from Fuel. BOA Editions, Ltd., 1998.
“Fundamentalism” from Fuel. BOA Editions, Ltd., 1998.
“Trying to Name What Doesn’t Change” from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems. Far Corner Books,
1995.
“You Are Your Own State Department” from The Tiny Journalist, 2019.
“My Wisdom” from The Tiny Journalist, 2019.
“Morning Song” from The Tiny Journalist, 2019.
“Boy and Egg” from Fuel. BOA Editions, Ltd., 1998.
“Hello” from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems. Far Corner Books, 1995.
The winner of the 2022 Cider Press Review Book Award for Inheritance with a High Error Rate (January 2024), Jen Karetnick is the author of ten additional poetry collections. She is the co-founder and managing editor of SWWIM Every Day.
© 2024 by Midnight Chem