{"id":5765,"date":"2020-11-23T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T09:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridareview.cah.ucf.edu\/?post_type=article&p=5765"},"modified":"2020-11-23T09:00:13","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T09:00:13","slug":"pollarding-animal-spirits","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/pollarding-animal-spirits\/","title":{"rendered":"Pollarding & Animal Spirits"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Pollarding<\/h3>\n

In this unwitting dawn. In the begonia
\nI put in the poem because of its incantatory<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

sound. In the vine I thought was a sweet<\/p>\n

pea\u2014to put a sweet pea in the poem\u2014<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

but was actually a weed, common vetch.<\/em>
\nIn the still early summer heat like gentle<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

pressure on the forearms and wrists.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A trio of military planes screams overhead.<\/p>\n

I squint into the glare and the leftover<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

cosmetic product on my hands flashes
\nin a type of dim recognition. Wash it off. Who<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

is going to read about botanical misprision.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a war on and I am the yellowing<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

pages of Bishop\u2019s National Geographic.<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s always a war on and its location<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

is not a function of place but of people, plucked<\/p>\n

for the vase or the oven, wilting or burning or<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

eaten as a delicacy. The word of the day<\/p>\n

is upward.<\/em> The word of the day is all cops<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

are bastards.<\/em> Who am I to say what we should make<\/p>\n

of the clay at our feet, minor gods with shovels<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and grass seed, with kilns and molds, the joints of<\/p>\n

our fingers curling around some texture, releasing<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

it in the checkout aisle or through the window<\/p>\n

that backs the checkout aisle.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After adrenaline, a comedown just like any
\nother high. You\u2019re sitting on the floor in a hoodie<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and biting all the skin off your lips. Outside,<\/p>\n

the day continues to mulch itself, there are<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

robins, someone is invoicing someone else<\/p>\n

for another order of rubber bullets.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The symbolic vulture will not arrive<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To hunch in the middle distance. Sorry,
\nI\u2019m back now, I was on the patio this whole time,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

my mouth is bleeding and the roar has faded
\nsuch that it might be mistaken for an air conditioner,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the mechanical hum of comfort
\nin deeply inhospitable environments,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

a fueled and speedy monarchy, it\u2019s coming,
\nI tell myself, get up, it\u2019s well-rested and armed<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

to the teeth literally but also and importantly
\nfor my purposes metaphorically, a giant blossoming<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

of dipshit noisemaking. It doesn\u2019t have to go
\nto the office and it is responsible for the existence<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

of Phoenix, Arizona. I wobble on my feet<\/p>\n

like a newborn anything. I am melancholic<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

about structures. Look: no matter what you grab<\/p>\n

out of the kitchen drawer, it can be used<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

as a lever. In what follows, we\u2019re on the side<\/p>\n

of the ice, those tropical begonias be damned.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Animal Spirits<\/h3>\n

\u201cIf the animal spirits are dimmed and the spontaneous optimism falters, leaving us to depend on nothing but a mathematical expectation, enterprise will fade and die.\u201d \u2014John Maynard Keynes<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Enterprise withering on the vine. Enterprise left to rot in the sun.<\/p>\n

Out of its carcass, a cooler wind\u2014<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\/ \/ \/<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If the world is bad to you, you are sad.
\nIf the world is good to you, but you know about the world, you are sad.
\nIf the world is good to you, and you do not know about the world, you will not be sad.
\nIf the world was bad to you but it is no longer, it is easy to forget about the world, and easy to<\/p>\n

forget you were ever sad.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

O dripping globe. What we\u2019ve blamed<\/p>\n

on the elements. On the accident
\nof our cells rather than the rapidity<\/p>\n

with which we turn water to cement.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\/ \/ \/<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The idea that the brain is the seat of the soul is older than most people think it is.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The history of naturalizing economic activity is exactly as long as you think it is.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We were made for money \/ \/ we were made of money<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\/ \/ \/<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Falling through a substrate,
\nthe gentle \u201cu\u201d of the body as it faces upward. The hands and feet like a dancer\u2019s, directional.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On the curb, a man turns over shovelfuls of dampened sand in a wheelbarrow. The sound is like<\/p>\n

stiff fabrics hung too close to one another on a line. A recursive intimacy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A brief and wild optimism, and then the grinding sludge of machinery, its unmatchable<\/p>\n

excitation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\/ \/ \/<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A bull in the blood.
\nA bull made of blood, made of air, air carried in the blood air seated in the brain.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The brain a bull. The world a bull with its hooves on the world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

O beast that could be gentle. Asleep in the beige autumn of the shaken head, slow wading<\/p>\n

through the pool of counter-liquefaction.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Abolish selling.
\nIn the hand outstretched, these cool bristles
\nlike a hand broom, a horned smoothness and the scent
\nof fields and a fire recently extinguished. This animal pause.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\/ \/ \/<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Frenzied acquisition of undergarments,<\/p>\n

small vases, linens, soaps, followed by the hatred of stuff\u2014<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\/ \/ \/<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The dog on the surface of the water, the dog on the silver of the coin.1<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1<\/span>See Robert Burton, in Anatomy of Melancholy,<\/em> on rabidity: \u201cThat in Hydrophobia<\/em> they seem to see the picture of a dog still in their water\u201d (222).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…to put a sweet pea in the poem\u2014 \/ but was actually a weed… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5771,"template":"","categories":[9,49,119],"tags":[1689,6,1683,1690,1691],"class_list":["post-5765","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-literary-features","category-poetry","tag-animal-spirits","tag-aquifer-the-florida-review-online","tag-environmental-poetry","tag-kimberly-quiogue-andrews","tag-pollarding"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPollarding & Animal Spirits - The Florida Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/pollarding-animal-spirits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pollarding & Animal Spirits - The Florida Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"...to put a sweet pea in the poem\u2014 \/ but was actually a weed...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/pollarding-animal-spirits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Florida Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/11\/27099C87-4F35-41EF-BA96-C6C0BA56F29F.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2456\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2303\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/article\\\/pollarding-animal-spirits\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/article\\\/pollarding-animal-spirits\\\/\",\"name\":\"Pollarding & Animal Spirits - 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