.
Voices
I
animal voice
machine voice
human voice
spirit voice
.
who speaks?
Thou
voice caught in the skirts and tendrils
of far too physical
functional
soul bereft?
posing a conditional?
.
when the humming/buzzing might cease
would you sue for peace
so late in warfare
.
sucking up poisoned sap
false flowerings in a last ditch
of bitterness?
.
II
I speak
I am snake and emu
echidna and feral pig
alien
co-dimensional
.
under earth and foliage
I am simmering
expectant of ultimate gush
.
I speak
howl bark whimper hiss
click thrum clash
.
I speak
crouch and spring
gobble crunch slither and give soul cry
at your wrought fire’s containment
its sputtering fringe tips
where ash eats flesh
slowly
.
I grumble hiccough grunt
slough off the sheaths
will witness all contingencies
until the last fraught cell
gives it up
.
III
Let us discover our differences
human as animal
skins touching perimeter
parallel organs pulsating until they fail
the rapid heart songs diminishing
.
Thou the difference?
a claim of higher faith?
it’s an old idea
fading
as enlightenment spills.
.
IV
now
chorus
setting aside complexities
syntax
slipping a soul into silicon
it may flourish
.
embracing all elements
formal hierarchies fall away in fact
are stored in unified mind
as myth
.
hear your voice
the breath of your listening
abstract
animal
real
appealing to hope
survival
.
Linda Stevenson is an Australian poet, with some work currently included in anthologies, and poems published recently in online and print literary magazines, such as “Blue Pepper” (Australia) and “Aspect Aspirations” (Canada). Her most recent collection is a Chapbook titled The Tipping Point; published in Melbourne in 2015, the book’s ecopoems speak to her concern for the world’s environment and our future within it.
.
.
North of Oxford 