Talking About the Voracious Jumping Worm - Wendy Cannella

Talking About the Voracious Jumping Worm ​

In childhood, all worms are crazy--
remember the swamp? We drank it. 

When something monstrous appeared
it was always ourselves, masks lowered. 

            Then I met the neighbors in the woods 
                                                   with a blanket and a bag of Jax. 

And my brother jumped out the window
wearing toy wings. 

                Some afternoons I absorb the world. 
                                               Nights are another story. 

                              I’ve left for you a soft landing. 
                                                          A garden that can’t be sown. 

             It turns out what you love
is everything—even what you spat out 

              in the bleached-out pine barrens, waiting all night 
                                                           for a drink— 

                                             me, and the rest of the weeds,
emerald ash borer, gypsy
moth, loosestrife—we’re working on it: 

                                 this goddamn golden mouth of sunlight 
                                                            ravenous—ravenous—ravenous

​

---

Wendy Cannella’s poetry appears or is forthcoming in Balancing Act 2 (Littoral Books), Crab Creek Review, Mid-American Review, Mom Egg Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Salamander, Solstice, and Rhino, among others. Her essay “Angels and Terrorists” is featured in The Room and the World: Essays on the Poet Stephen Dunn from Syracuse University Press. She serves as co-chair on the board of directors of the Portsmouth Poet Laureate Project, and lives in York Harbor, Maine.