{"id":4501,"date":"2013-12-15T02:00:03","date_gmt":"2013-12-15T02:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sporkpress.com\/?p=4501"},"modified":"2013-12-15T02:00:03","modified_gmt":"2013-12-15T02:00:03","slug":"2-poems-sara-biggs-chaney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/2013\/12\/15\/2-poems-sara-biggs-chaney\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Poems || Sara Biggs Chaney"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unfortunate Fish<\/strong>
\n 
\nDiscovered in February in the seas surrounding the Desventuradas Islands (the \u2018unfortunate\u2019 islands in Spanish) off the coast of Chile, experts say this fish could be a new species\u2026. The National Geographic Society is holding a contest from July 31 to August 26 to give this mystery fish a common name.<\/em>
\n 
\n                –Jane Lee, \u201cHelp Name This Mystery Fish.\u201d
\n                    National Geographic, July 30, 2013[1]
\n 
\n 
\n 
\nSplit papaya,
\nmonk eye in basalt,
\ntop heavy with grasses\u2014
\nCome out.
\nWash me in possible.
\n 
\nThe lights of my submersible are keening.
\nMy adamic sirens on overdrive.
\nEven the coral is terrified.
\nNomen fugitivus,
\nyou fool nobody.
\nBaby,
\nyour un-name is showing.
\n 
\nYou\u2019ve arrived, opal fire fish.
\nShake that pensive limetail,
\nyou Galapagos dream.
\nPrepare to be words,
\nand in words, to be
\ncreation myth,
\netched in pixilated scales.
\n 
\n 
\n________________________________
\nOn Ray Grathwohl\u2019s Painting, \u201cThe Eviction\u201d <\/strong>[2]
\n 
\n 
\nThe painting might be Rockwell\u2019s
\nafter a hard winter.
\n 
\nAfter he moved to Akron,
\nwent to work at the rubber factory,
\nchanged his name to Ray.
\n 
\nAfter Ray, from the window,
\nsaw the world bone soaked,
\nshaking for warmth.
\n 
\nThe atrocity of grandpa\u2019s bedframe
\nspilling lost coins over the black ice.
\n 
\nWas his heart hurt, Ray\u2019s,
\nand if it was, why did he leave us
\ncrooked puppies like pi\u00f1ata candy,
\nchildren, arms curving in puzzled arcs
\nas if caught waiting for a punch line?
\n 
\nEven a clown boy, hind-leg walking,
\nwhat a trick, the way his roller toy
\npasses trackless over the fresh snow.
\n 
\nAs if to say, maybe we weren\u2019t here,
\nafter all, and maybe we need not ask
\n 
\nwill some streets always be so?
\n 
\nTheir losses unfolding on sidewalks,
\nopen arms speaking please lord
\nI surrender, children
\nforever bearing more
\nthan their stature allows?
\n 
\n 
\n________________________________________
\n [1] Names in the fourth stanza of the poem are drawn from the article\u2019s comment thread.
\n [2]This poem is inspired by Ray Grathwohl\u2019s painting, \u201cThe Eviction,\u201d created in Akron, Ohio in 1946. http:\/\/akronartcollection.org\/Obj4013?sid=35&x=5910
\n________________________________________
\nSara Biggs Chaney<\/strong>‘s first chapbook, Precipice Fruit<\/em>, was released in October, 2013. Her second chapbook, Ann Coulter’s Letter to the Young Poets<\/em>, is forthcoming from dancing girl press in 2014. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, Whiskeypaper, Menacing Hedge, the Adroit Journal, Storm Cellar and other places. You can catch up with Sara at sarabiggschaney.blogspot.com<\/a>
\n  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unfortunate Fish   Discovered in February in the seas surrounding the Desventuradas Islands (the \u2018unfortunate\u2019 islands in Spanish) off the coast of Chile, experts say this fish could be a new species\u2026. The National Geographic Society is holding a contest from July 31 to August 26 to give this mystery fish a common name.   […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[29,97,118],"class_list":["post-4501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-things","tag-dartmouth-college","tag-sara-biggs-chaney","tag-vermont"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}