FOR A FRACKING GOOD TIME
There is a general consensus among scientists
that the spike in Oklahoma’s earthquake activity
has been triggered by disposal wells used to dispose
of waste from oil and gas drilling operations.
Is their seismology
bigger than yours
do they get more
kick and buckle
out of earth, wider
smiles from fissures
stronger roll
and rain of rock?
Send today for
a no fault solution
to your state’s shame
Scott Pruitt’s
Oklahoma
Earthquake Kit.
Guaranteed to put
tremors back in
the humdrum
quicken what had
slackened, give your
bucks a bang. No
muss or fuss to cuss –
you just add water.
IN MIGRATION
Swyer Preserve
Stuyvesant, New York
Inside mud skin
heavy winter
run-off quickens
the creek into froth
Wet-footed
forest offering up
skunk cabbage
anemones
the seductive
blush of new vines
A phoebe calls
from a budding
alder where
one year ago
today stretched
over the sibilance
I held a wake
on the water
and let fly
my sister’s ashes
DOG AUBADE
The doe scissors
away from us
you, as always
a yard or two ahead
free of the lead
gay tail waving
Not so shy
these deer fly
orbiting our heads
like hungry halos
I swat
You sprint
At the far end
of the field
a fawn slips
through silver birch
The sun rises
A welt rises
Crushed flies
stud my matted hair
Paul Genega has published five chapbooks and five full-length collections of poetry. His sixth full-length collection, Sculling on the Lethe, will be launched by Salmon Poetry (Ireland) at the AWP Convention in Tampa, March, 2018. Over a forty-plus year career, his poetry has garnered numerous awards, including the “Discovery Award,” five Pushcart Prize nominations and an individual fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and his work has appeared in leading magazines and journals such as New York Quarterly, Poetry, the New York Times, The Nation, and The Paterson Literary Review. As a playwright, he has co-authored two works with Emmy Award winning composer/filmmaker Patricia Lee Stotter: Haven’t We Met?, which was presented at the Writers Theater in New York, and Paging Doctor Faustus, which is currently being readied for workshop production. In 2014, Genega assumed directorship of Three Mile Harbor Press upon the death of its founding editor Antje Katcher. He taught for many years at Bloomfield College, New Jersey where he founded the creative writing program and served as Chair of Humanities. His legacy continues at Bloomfield through the Genega Endowed Scholarships in Creative Writing.
