after “The Top Non-invasive Species Killed in Each State,” an NPR infographic
Cattle egrets in Hawaii and Louisiana.
White-tailed deer in Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.
Coyotes across the west.
At the reading in the park named for a poet and journalist,
we do what we are told—skeptically. Look it up
to be sure. Balance threat like a lantern in a palm.
Children in formal wear stomp like giants
crushing a meek village, scraping spotted guts off their heels.
I know about the ash trees in Toledo. My grandmother’s
ravaged rose bushes, her black eye. Snakehead fish
who creep to shore at night, trekking on land to another body
of black water where they’re swallowed and multiplied,
fluorescent eggs rippling like myth.
Wanted posters hang on the rail of the dam, urging visitors
kill this fish on site, while photographers shoot
bald eagles skimming baywater for prey,
one teasing its claw along the current’s abdomen.
The children kneel in the grass, picking fans of common plantain—
white man’s foot— which we brought—our feet
stomping seeds in someone else’s ground.
When vultures gather, we name it committee, and recoil
from the reminder of death, how it’s handled, and by whom,
their wings inky pages oversteeped in language.
Somewhere, another conference room calls for a culling. Hunger circles
omens in the sky.
Ravens, Nevada.
Pikeminnows, Washington.
Vultures, Kentucky and Tennessee.
—
Carrie George is a co-editor of Light Enters the Grove: Exploring Cuyahoga Valley National Park Through Poetry, published by Kent State University Press. She is the recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, and her work has appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Cosmonauts Avenue, The Indianapolis Review, The Florida Review, and elsewhere.
