{"id":78,"date":"2015-09-25T03:01:26","date_gmt":"2015-09-25T03:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/staging\/?p=78"},"modified":"2026-05-28T23:04:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T23:04:18","slug":"roxanna-bennett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue22\/roxanna-bennett\/","title":{"rendered":"Roxanna Bennett"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bird Beaters<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/strong>No choice but to bludgeon it from crow
\nto carcass with its head at that angle,
\ndark feathered dangle, hard blunt blow
\nto sever the soft neck\u2019s hang, quell<\/p>\n

the strange strain of pain broken
\nbones made. Rock, paper, scissored
\nour decision, who to choke the croaking, 
\nadminister the mercy beating. Shored<\/p>\n

up the loser, helped choose her switch,
\nheavy, quick. No one disputed kindness
\nversus killing, or threatened to snitch. 
\nEvident lifeless better than flightless.<\/p>\n

The park went still when she raised
\nher stick. It stared at death with one
\nslick eye; she met the plea of its gaze,
\ndutifully crushed its skull. Solemn,<\/p>\n

we scratched a small pit beneath
\nthe black alder bush, laid it tenderly,
\nlimp in the indent. Feather bequeathed
\nto the brave executioner, commended<\/p>\n

her steady skill. Someone scuffed
\ndirt over the little stiff. We left behind
\nthe burden of concern, grew up
\ninto faltering monsters, disinclined<\/p>\n

to decide. Preferring the suffering of others.<\/p>\n


\nGhost Weight
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

If we don’t hang together
\nand submerge our small
\nhates, if we don\u2019t weather
\nthe unbearable all
\nwith each other, They
\nwill have won. This
\nis tomorrow, this day
\nand this. We miss
\ntheir ghost weight;
\neven the haunts we will
\ngrieve for. Our freight
\nis our loss, the still
\nliving need our strong
\nto hold on to. Hold on.<\/p>\n

Atlas of Anchors<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/h6>\n

her tongue is winter
\nand this body hard earth<\/p>\n

this body is a mass grave
\nand I am the memorial<\/p>\n

to be a body nothing grows inside of
\nto be a body ripe with wrong<\/p>\n

this body buckles
\nits gravity a gas giant<\/p>\n

this body seethes the fractal fascia
\nclassical atlas of anchors<\/p>\n

to be a body that cages only
\nto be a body captures loss<\/p>\n

her mouth is summer
\nbut this body has no season<\/p>\n

Where\u2019s The Dog?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/strong>This is how you are brave, insistent instinct.
\nYou remember too much, that\u2019s what the doctors say,
\nnot answers but anniversaries like a fist
\ninside. Don\u2019t want to acknowledge what lays
\nsiege to your physical. Will what\u2019s left of you ever
\nbe located? Even by dogs? The image of mother
\nwho couldn\u2019t want you, cellular memory of no, never, 
\npledged to the bone. You will stay this age and other
\nsubjects less, can\u2019t control language when object alone.
\nLeave and lean toward losing. Can’t stand losing.
\nYou never meant to leave, want to lay this down,
\nwhat you would be losing if you left. Ferocity in belonging,
\nbeing missed. To say nothing of the dog is to comment
\non its absence, its failure to deflect your own sadness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bird Beaters<\/strong>
\n No choice but to bludgeon it from crow
\nto carcass with its head at that angle,
\ndark feathered dangle, hard blunt blow
\nto sever the soft neck\u2019s hang,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2152,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions\/2152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}