Clade Song 10

The Colony

: decision to swarm or

thrum : you rise to gust

through scrappy pines

then nest with splinters

in swale just cut

: circulate the bright

smell of grass

to find a clearing

where living means

you must become

prismatic : cellular

: you must choose

to work milkweed

: vetch : silver

maples collect

dioxin blinds

from opium blooms

unfolding you hum

through cavities of dust

clover : dandelion I

or dissolve in colony

: widening each you :

: to open the field :

Alexandra Mattraw is a queer Berkeley poet, critic, and mother whose second book, We fell into weather, emerged in March through Cultural Society. You can find her interview about that book at Kenyon Review and her latest chapbooks at Dancing Girl Press. Alexandra’s poems and reviews have also appeared or are forthcoming in journals including Denver Quarterly, Interim, Jacket2, The Poetry Project, and VOLT. In San Francisco, she curates a writing, art, and performance series called Lone Glen, now in its eighth year.