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IF THE CITY IS STRIPED LIKE A PRISON CELL,
HOW CAN WE EXTRICATE THOUGHT?
The greater problem is to extricate thought
from synapses, dendrites, and cell bodies--
the cerebrum's tangled tropical forest
lined with sunlight and shadow, where
butterflies, beetles, and medicinal plants
go extinct each day. Show me the grammar
that can save each delicate fluttering
and aromatic leaf, the understory
where thought travels in circles, then fades
among vines. Speak to me now in this house
in the city. Tell me why the pineapple family
has many air plants, and digger bees have stripes.
Lucille Lang Day has published four poetry collections: Infinities, Wild One, Fire in the Garden, and Self-Portrait with Hand Microscope, which was selected by Robert Pinsky for the Joseph Henry Jackson Award. She is also the author of two poetry chapbooks: Lucille Lang Day: Greatest Hits, 1975-2000 in Pudding House's invitational series, and The Book of Answers, released by Finishing Line Press in September 2006. Her first children's book, Chain Letter, was published by Heyday in 2005. Her poetry and prose have appeared widely in such magazines and anthologies as The Hudson Review, The Threepenny Review, Mother Songs (Norton), and California Poetry: From the Gold Rush to the Present (Heyday). She received her M.A. in English and M.F.A. in creative writing from San Francisco State University, and her M.A. in zoology and Ph.D. in science and mathematics education from the University of California at Berkeley. She is the founder and director of a small press, Scarlet Tanager Books, and the director of the Hall of Health, an interactive children's museum in Berkeley. (February 2007)
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