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From: Vol.10 N.01 – Private: The Transformative Now

Reverence

by River
mamas lips worshipped mosquitoes
sad for their reputation
carriers of death
but perfectly created

she admired the survival by
sip
she admired that pregnant
mamas only took to nurture
never kilt
she crooned at nectar nourished
not death fed

But nature is not kind to be
kind
mamas lips spilled reality that
nature’s kind is to be
she wanted to be

reincarnated as a mosquito
one whose gut laid void of lethality
poor mosquito

How do we balance?
she wobbled.
how do we pray
when we root
for the cheetah or deer
based on the lens presented?

life roots for itself
laid like sheafed tessellation of
structured breath
each breeze dependent on the breezes
before, dimensions
of mosquitos
on mamas lips
Published: April 2023
River
(they/them) is a poet who lives in the US where the Midwest meets the South. A child of diasporic Appalachians, their work deals with the complicated nature of life through the lens of shifting identity, gender and disability. River has kids and a high-strung rescue Siamese with the softest fur. They have a forthcoming publication in Consequence Forum, Volume 15.1.

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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