Kelle Groom
Managing Editor Lisa Ampleman: As I prepared this post for publication a few weeks ago, I wondered if this poem would seem too timely on its publication date. Kelle Groom’s “River of Grass” includes specific details that remind us of the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, but—of course—in the meantime we’ve had a new large-scale tragedy to contemplate, this time at Sante Fe High School in Texas. Groom’s use of imagery moves from the particular (an AR15) to more general descriptions (palm trees and parks), but I’m drawn to the poem because of how it implicates each of us who “consume” the tragedy through various forms of media. “I don’t want your condolences,” a voice in the poem says, and we find ourselves needing to recalibrate: Exclamation marks and the traditional “punching bags” aren’t enough.
To hear Kelle read her poem, click below:
River of Grass
For mystery, focus on the wrong thing:
the palm tree instead of the man in black,
the curtain instead of a bird, pinprick eye, head
of tiny dots masked, blame neighbors
and children for not spotting a small darkness
in the corner of sky, ballooning:
we lived in a park with no stores or traffic lights:
we were tranquil and wooded:
flute players join the tubas
lifted to mouths,
drummer hands silent:
the shooter wore a gas mask, had hand grenades
head turned, elbows bent:
listening: curvy ink backs:
pulled the fire alarm:
an AR15 shoots through a body
and through a wall:
through a lookout tower:
at elementary schools:
in the fog skirts flare like a circus:
muzzle easy to control:
the glass shattered one in the head
one in the leg blood on the floor:
I don’t want your condolences,
your punching bag, your exclamation marks:
it is too late it is too early
it is too death house it is too lethal current
too dark helmet
it is too autopsy table
too flush up against the screen.
Kelle Groom is the author of four poetry collections, including Spill (Anhinga, 2017) and a memoir, I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl (Simon & Schuster, 2011), a Barnes & Noble Discover selection and New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. Her publications include American Poetry Review, The New Yorker, Ploughshares, and Poetry.
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