False bird of paradise by Jim Ross
Displaced Monarchs
Brigittine French
Home, wings whisper
in an unknown language of
the color orange
its phonology made of
petals opening
its syntax arranged by
worms in the soil
and in the soul
Weeds, dead grandfathers insist
they ordered
sons and
sons-in-law
and dim-witted neighbor men
who needed the meager pay
to pull hearty stalks
bleeding milky white
it was of no consequence to them
a minor irritation
like a sliver in the finger or
a child petting cats
during chore time
Progress, daughters say
we promise ourselves
uncalloused hands
confident with corn knives
among even bean rows
hacking is better than pulling
chemicals are best
the hose is dainty
and the pink stain
makes the venom festive
cosmopolitan granddaughters
know nothing
of dead grandfathers’ merciless theories
know nothing
of daughters who fled,
we, farmers’ daughters who became their mothers,
with certitude that books
dates
and equality
would keep us from misery
we could see, yet not name
these granddaughters are the ones
who can learn to
conjugate
in this unrecognized sunset tongue
How will they understand a language they do not yet speak?
the idiom
is carried
on wings of long displaced rulers
whose green palaces survive
as remnants
in the wildest spaces
men forget to destroy
its semantics will form
in dreams
that come from the wives
of the grandfathers
our grandmothers
whose voices are louder
in death than in life
Brigittine French is an anthropologist, a third-generation Iowan, and author of three books (UArizona Press 2010; Routledge 2018; Rutgers U Press 2020). Her writing has appeared in Ms.com, Salon.com, and Lyrical Iowa.
Jim Ross jumped into creative pursuits in 2015 after rewarding career in public health research. With graduate degree from Howard University, in ten years he’s published nonfiction, fiction, poetry, photography, hybrid, interviews, and plays in 200+ journals on five continents. Photo publications include Alchemy Spoon, Barnstorm, Burningword, Camas, Feral, Invisible City, Orion, Phoebe, and Stonecoast. Photo-essays include DASH, Kestrel, Litro, NWW, Pilgrimage, Sweet, Typehouse. His most recent interview, published by Terrain.org, was conducted with an artist. A Best of the Net nominee in nonfiction and art, he also wrote/acted in a one-act play and appeared in a documentary limited series broadcast internationally. Jim’s family splits time between city and mountains.