Pearl Crescent · Kendall Lake

Cuyahoga’s Collar of Dissent 2020

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by Monica Kaiser

in memoriam Ruth Bader Ginsberg

I am cocooning,
& visualizing butterflies
to escape the dying,

the images

of people with tubes
down their throats.

A global diseasing.


Mother keeps warning.

Mother keeps warming.

I am guilty of climate genocide,

even as I fell in love
     with you, pearl crescent.
Even as I watched
     natural laws govern you,
summer after summer,
the continual reinvention
of yourself—
a finale of flames
puddled on wet ground,
an otherworldly orange.

Language-like,

your pigments & patterns
are fluid, vary state to state,
region to region. Your pearls
are persistent, rebellious by nature.
One by one,
you flitter, disperse.
Heavenwards,
out of sight. Down to open meadows,
to the throats & tubes
of flowers. Petal posers.
Wings open. Wings close.

Your proboscis sips the nectar’s
sweetness, as tiny spiracles allow air
into your tracheal tubes.

Systems are necessary for survival—
as is your courtship chase,
a possible fluttering, a coupling,
a joining of abdomens: copulation.

I, too, am a reinvention—
a dynamic energy
sheltering inside a bulldozed tree
as it snows,
as our gas furnace heats,
as our curtains shiver in its air,
as I visualize butterflies
& reimagine you & your
hindwing’s crescent pearls
quivering at the collar
of every
star.

Continue Reading

Eastern ForktailLindsay Barba

CoyoteStephanie Ginese

Common MilkweedDelilah McCrea

Showy OrchisBill Newby

Common PawpawIsaiah Back-Gaal

Common DewberryPeter McWilliams

Winter FireflyIsaiah Hunt

Virginia BluebellsBronlynn Thurman

American RobinKari Gunter-Seymour

American CrowJason Harris

Eastern CottontailEros Livieratos

Bald-faced HornetKJ Ceranowski

Poverty OatgrassHaylee Schwenk

Song SparrowVirginia Konchan

Wood DuckDiana Lueptow

Japanese HoneysuckleShei Sanchez

Yellow BullheadTed Lardner

Funeral BellTishon Woolcock

Common DandelionCora Liderbach

WarmouthCamille Ferguson

Snapping TurtleJessica Jewell

SassafrasAndrea Imdacha

Poison IvyMarina Vladova

Pharaoh CicadaCathy Barber

Northern Dusky SlugRay McNiece

JewelweedJudith Mansour

DamselfliesKen Tomaro

BloodrootChad Lutz

KilldeerMary Biddinger

Big Brown BatSujata Lakhe

Barred OwlCourtney Noster

Long-eared OwlMichael Loderstedt

Isabella Tiger MothLeah Graham

American SycamoreMegan Lubey

Water Forget-Me-NotAlyssa Perry

Masked BeesZach Savich

TrilliumKimberlee Medicine Horn Jackson

CrayfishConor Bracken

Great Blue HeronDan Dorman

American SweetgumCaryl Pagel

Painted TurtleRebekah Ainsworth

Green DarnerMarion Boyer

American BeaverKatie Daley

Eastern Screech-OwlDr. R. Ray Gehani

Spring PeeperBarbara Sabol

Eastern Carpenter BeeSylvia Clark

Jacob's LadderRisha Nicole

Candleflame LichenClara Britton

Eastern NewtElizabeth Ryan

American BullfrogLaura Grace Weldon

American ChestnutCarrie George

American GoldfinchMarybeth Cieplinski

American HornbeamJeff Gundy

Artist’s BracketSusann Moeller

Banded Fishing SpiderCharlie Malone

BluegillOlivia Farina

Common Star-of-BethlehemBrita Alaburda

Common StonefliesKaren Schubert

Eastern ChipmunkNathan Kemp

Firefly BeetleJacquie Peoples Dukes

Gray CatbirdTheresa Brightman

Great MulleinLaurie Kincer

Green HeronPaula J. Lambert

HepaticaAmanda Schuster

Interrupted FernKathleen Cerveny

Jack-in-the-PulpitMichael Buebe

Meadow VoleRoberta Jupin

Monarch ButterflyDeborah Fleming

MuskratCatherine Wing

Pearl CrescentMonica Kaiser

Poison HemlockJon Conley

Star JelliesCameron Gorman

Sugar MapleSteve Brightman

Turkey VultureLaura Grace Weldon

White-footed MouseMichelle Bissell

White-tailed DeerBenjamin Rhodes

Wild CarrotJessica Jones

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Traveling Stanzas community arts projects bring poetry to people’s everyday lives through innovative methods and digital platforms.