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Bruce Snider

They Will Not Eat the Bird of Paradise

Poetry from NER 37.2

In_the_Water

but they will devour the rose, the foxglove,
the lily of the valley, their flat teeth
scouring the crocus to a nub
over cold names and dates. They will not eat
the bird of paradise, but they will
crouch on the cheat grass and mark the iris
with their urine, and lie on headstones,
chewing their cud. After the grave
diggers have wiped down their shovels,
the furred shapes will rise at dusk from
behind the Walmart, hooves
sinking into mud along Garner’s creek.

[read more]

Bruce Snider is the author of two collections of poetry, Paradise, Indiana (LSU Press, 2012) and The Year We Studied Women (University of Wisconsin Press, 2003). With the poet Shara Lessley, he is currently co-editing an anthology of essays, The Poem’s Country: Place and Poetic Practice. He teaches at the University of San Francisco.

Maria S. Picone is a writer, painter, and photographer who lives in Boulder, Colorado. She studies fiction writing at Goddard College. She loves to volunteer and travel, most recently having done both in a rural village in Cambodia. Her website is mariaspicone.com, or you can follow her on Twitter @mspicone.

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