Clade Song 14

Julie Ritter Borsa · In the great hall of pathology

In the great hall of pathology

Unshod ladies waltz
with glossblack beetles

Each step imprinting the planks
Each gentle footfall a tiny ghost

The beetles’ tarsal claws impart
deft pinpoints like tiny entry wounds

Still, do not throw the
dance floor in the fire

In the kitchen the boys
stir the babies in their pots

On the roof, girls ready the smaller dogs
for the older girls to string up like pennants

For they must read the wind somehow
The dogs don’t mind, they do recount the freedom it brings

And the vantage point: viewing sidereal bodies
in the lawn, where they lay, books still in their hands

The first funerals held earlier
All day all day all day akk da akk dat

The sorrow is coarse, at midnight
the men grind it, pulverize it to plate their throats

Till it’s finally calm, the wailing is done
And the floodwaters move in and in

Until the whole of the oeuvre is underwater
A legacy, what is that called?

Julie Ritter Borsa is a poet and composer living on the unceded territory of the Kumeyaay Nation. After receiving a BA in French literature from UCLA, she had an early career in music, making records—as they were once called—and also songs for film and television. Julie’s poems have appeared in Puerto del Sol, Painted Bride Quarterly, and Zócalo Public Square; she was the recipient of the Meridian Editors’ Prize; and her work was longlisted for the Palette Poetry Prize. She wishes to thank the kind people at the Château d’Orquevaux residency where she wrote the poem “In the great hall of pathology” and the music heard here with it.