LEORA FRIDMAN

from GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

 

the house lived with me inside it

me   and a wall-eye

I refrained from fishing
for justice

we lived here in this country
all of us under one thing

pledging to stay under

all under one thing
please

 

take me over,
you wall-eye,

 

watch me coming and see

 

a storm is a solution

 

dashed down to the right
dashed under cloud cover
led everyone home

 

took over from the river

 

swallowed alone

 

in weather terms
we never got flooded

 

we saw it coming
and pre-fled

 

I sweated it out
to the ranger

 

I left him
to be

 

I lied and said
I was single
when I was only
camping alone

 

does my body
ever speak
for me
on purpose

 

what does anyone know
about the outdoors

 

I want to feel comfortable
in a woodland environment
in a natural skin

 

won’t you take me, ranger
won’t you ask my skin
to see

 

will you arrange me in this habitat

 

will my body
ever speak
to me

 

I pledge allegiance
to the end
of ice forms

 

I pledge to watch them tonight

 

meaning also
I don’t believe us
when we walk so far to say

 

we love those mammals
and we want to share them on this land

 

I dream you save them
by finding a new way to sell them
back to their companions

 

you exchange them fresh
on ice

 

I dream you tell me
you’ve got a mammal by the neck
and this is how you will keep him alive

 

I led in bed
on purpose

 

I asked
to be alone

 

I ascribed
to stripping

 

and so that makes me less
braver but lesser

 

I show it all
the excavated rock
eroded soil

 

I miss the mines

 

I forget they are not beautiful
what earth

 

is the earth
for my body

Leora Fridman is the author of Precious Coast (H_ngm_n B_ _ks), Obvious Metals (Projective Industries), On the architecture and Essential Nature (The New Megaphone), and Eduardo Milán: Poems (Toad Press). With Kelin Loe, she edits Spoke Too Soon: A Journal of the Longer. With media artist Liat Berdugo, energy specialist Joshua Finn, and scientist Shawn Manchester, she forms the collective The Bureau.