20 March 2006 | Vol. 6, No. 1
Ecological Others
I ruined us. I thought
me a bottle gentian, you a bumblebee.
Instead we competed.
Goodbye mutualism, I said, goodbye symbiosis.
I showed you every one I loved.
You found my fourteen doubles.
Now none are left.
All was neutralism.
Be my species B.
You can be the parasite.
If you're fig, I'll be fig wasp:
I'll give you commensalism for nothing.
About the author:
Lily Brown's work has appeared in the Harvard Advocate and in Shampoo Poetry. She is a first-year student in the MFA program at Saint Mary's College. Though she has spent 23 years of her life in Massachusetts, she is intolerant of temperatures below 45 degrees Fahrenheit.
For further reading:
See the complete list of work by Lily Brown at 42opus. Browse the contents of 42opus Vol. 6, No. 1, where "Ecological Others" ran on March 20, 2006. List other work with these same labels: poetry.
