Petra Kuppers
Poison Sumac: red gothic earrings on gnarled fingerbones.
Velvet touch of a Lamb’s Ear cabbage patch, linden-green pulse in the ground.
Black garbage bags, burnt into devil finger’s fungus.
Rake up a blue shirt. Orange netting lichen.
A shaped metal thing, as if a locomotive brayed it toward spread.
Bitumen patches, rain-curled out of seals.
Dinosaur seed pods, swollen purple with green sticky sap.
Acorn nut, un-hatted, veined, split, keeps the secret.
Petra Kuppers is a disability culture activist, a community performance artist, and a Professor at the University of Michigan. Her books include the ecosomatic poetry collection Gut Botany, the queer/crip speculative story collection Ice Bar, and multiple academic books. She lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where she co-creates Turtle Disco, a somatic writing space.
