Feed
“History will judge us for odes to tulips.”
— Andrew Grace
You look outside.
Plum trees realize the wind
w/ hot courtyard splats
hungry yellowjackets plow
mouthparts into. Elsewhere
sweet landfill leachate
sweats together w/ hints
of bulb garden behind a fence.
The weather’s unreal these days,
already breaking yolk on acres,
yellowing your complex,
your light breakfast, your feed.
Whites start to fry.
You look outside. Yeast cultures heave
under smokestacks, taking
generation drags on
gases you’re becoming more
& more of. Your hate
simmers on the backburner,
but beauty boils over
like the weather—in motion,
an ongoing, unbroken love
for your country. You look outside.
Already day dissolves in dream,
already borders break, ice cracks
& calves, crowds cheer
as the body drops. Look up—
snow falls
like white phosphorus
on the heads of tulips.
Jasper Beck grew up in rural Oregon, graduating with honors from Western Oregon University with a degree in English. They received the 2023 Peter Sears Prize for Poetry, and won the 2024 NFSPS College Undergraduate Poetry Competition. They are currently studying in University of Idaho’s Creative Writing MFA program, and are an assistant editor for the online literary magazine Traverse.