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From: Vol.06 N.01 – The Everywhere of Things

Eco de la historia

by Jake Goetz

bees weave

a fabric of wind around

the hills hoist

and through a rattling freight

bound to ecology

the same way bees

are bound to the economy

or a flock of pigeons

speck the sky

while the uneven yard

has the feeling

of being lived in

slices of pizza

in the grass   a pair of volleys

a recycling bin

full of bottles

lying beside a circular

fire-pit of bricks

collapsed like the ruins

of the Chachapoyas

high up

in the cloud forests

in northern Peru – Kuélap

a de-centralised community

that traded with people

of the Amazon and coast

until the Inka   then the Spanish

reduced their world

to an archaeological discovery

always in the name

of progression and religion

or profit and national interest

in the name of Sydney

or Sydenham   of the ways in which

language can colonise place

a people   turning desire

into the rattling

of that freight   a booming A380

vibrating the grass

the land

where ideas expand

into floods   endure fires

and the suburban rash

where i watch bees

take what they can

while still giving

weaving through another freight

a Virgin plane

and cars on the Princes

circling through the city

as bees around

the hills hoist or drones

over the Middle East

bound to the echo of history

this ability to think

and yet repeat

Published: January 2019
Jake Goetz

currently resides in Sydney’s Inner West. His first book, meditations with passing water, a long-poem written alongside the Maiwar / Brisbane River, was published by Rabbit Poetry Journal in 2018.

An Australian and international
journal of ecopoetry and ecopoetics.

Plumwood Mountain Journal is created on the unceded lands of the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and to elders past, present and future. We also acknowledge all traditional custodians of the lands this journal reaches.

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