A SERIES OF UN/NATURAL/DISASTERS

by Cheena Marie Lo

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A Series of Un/Natural/Disasters is attentive to the sorts of mutual aid and possibility that appear in moments of state failure. As such it maps long and complicated equations, moving from Katrina to the prisoners at Riker’s Island as they await Sandy. It understands disaster as a collective system, the state as precarious, and community as necessary.

Lo ricochets accountability in their poetry –Ariel Goldberg

I love the numbers. They, like the long list of hits of phrases found and ordered that begin with ‘poor’ are chilling in how apt we the reader are in filling out / in the disasters to which they refer, and refer again. –Rachel Levitsky

 

an excerpt

so what about the instinct to survive.

so what about birds and burying beetles.

so what about support and what about struggle.

so what about ants and bees and termites.

so what about the field upon which tender feelings develop even amidst otherwise most cruel animals.

so what about migration. breeding. autumn.

so what about the numberless lakes of the russian and siberian steppes and what about aquatic birds, all living in perfect peace—

 

about the author

Born in Manapla, Philippines, Cheena Marie Lo is a genderqueer poet based in Oakland, CA. They co-curated the Manifest Reading Series, which featured mainly queer experimental artists and writers. They currently coordinate a youth art program at California College of the Arts, and co-edit the literary journal, HOLD.

$16 (U.S., Canada, and Mexico)

$19 (International)