a beet poem

beetroot is the vegetable of the year!
followed by
parsnips!

I always say turnips for parsnips
as I often say Tuesday for Thursday
what can we do?

beetroots don’t grow in deserts
but deserts are funny
because British people order them in restaurants
when they don’t pronounce French very well

desert / dessert
désert / dessert

tonight Nicky cooks a beetroot soup
it is Wednesday the day for beetroot soup

   did you know in hard times
   women used beetroot for make-up?
   and burnt matches for eyeliner

I pick a cube of beetroot on the bunker
in the bathroom I apply it to my lips
and on my cheeks
   look!

beetroot used to come in cubes
at the canteen at school
it was not a popular starter
the half grapefruit with sugar neither
we only licked the sugar on top
making a face when it felt acidic

cut a beetroot in two
apply each bit
on your cheeks
get red regular circles
on your cheeks
go to the disco!

you look like
the woman who sees
the sharpness of sorrow
rusting the theatre set
which
eventually
falls

dance till the morn!

later that Wednesday night
Nicky said
       you still have beetroot
       on your lips

"What a piece of work is a poet, forever in the here and now and the when and whenever, a poet all of the time whether they try to be or not, whether they’re thinking about reading a book while reading a book, remembering cubed beetroot, obliquely referencing polar bears, or considering the cognitive processes of a Siamese cat eating polystyrene. the male poet and the female poet… is a long poem made of shorter poems, a beautiful murmuration, a writer moving through the world doing this and doing that, noticing everything, finding nothing negligible, seeking connection and always, always making magic." —Tom Jenks

"Anne-Laure Coxam has an ornithologist’s eye for the human, and a great ear for the ambient language she shapes and detourns. There’s such range in this collection, from heartbreaking short lyrics to satirical prose, tracing the growth, crises and gentle unknotting of a relationship. Everywhere, too, there’s a solidarity with all migrant and precarious beings. It’s all the more moving for the wry humour Coxam finds in her clinical observations of the bird-people, and of her own strategies for living as one of them. A beautiful book, and thoroughly recommended." —Peter Manson

"Exciting times! Need advice on unplugging a brexiter? Or how to perform surgery on fixed toxic primary binaries? Still dreaming of a common metaphor? Who you gonna call? Get Anne-Laure Coxam on speed dial. Catch her at the beach recycling language with bits of coconut and razor clam. Move over David Attenborough, tell Hélène Cixous the news!—Here comes Coxam's poetry 'sobbing and [...] trembling regularly and fiercely like an animal who dreams'." —Jane Goldman

the male and the female poet go to the surgery... by Anne-Laure Coxam

£10.00

Quantity

passenger to

the versions of Martha’s life differ
but for certain
she died
first September 1914
even if she survived a stroke
in Cincinnati Zoo

her male companions died
in 1909 and 1910
after which tragic event
a reward of $1000 was offered
to find Martha a mate

her dead body was frozen
by the Cincinnati Ice Company
sent by express train
to Washington DC

she was skinned
her skin mounted
her internal parts
dissected and preserved

from the 20s through the early 50s
displayed on a small branch
fastened to a block of Styrofoam
Martha was paired with a male

a male she never met
as he had been shot
in Minnesota in 1883

Styrofoam is a trademarked brand of
closed-cell extruded polystyrene foam
commonly called “Blue Board”
from 1956 to 1999 Martha was displayed
in a long exhibition called The Birds of the World

she was moved to San Diego in 1966
to be displayed at a Conservation Conference
then back to Cincinnati Zoo for the dedication of
the passenger pigeon memorial

Martha was back in Washington
on display from June 2014 to September 2015
for the exhibition Once There Were Billions

Martha was the last
known living passenger pigeon

“passenger pigeon” derives
from the French adjective passager
meaning brief
ephemeral or fleeting

passenger pigeons were once
the most abundant bird
in North America before
Europeans hunted them
on a great scale
and commercialised them
as “cheap food”

the passenger pigeons’ flocks
were so dense they covered the sky
and hid the sun for days

Europeans found it
amusing to shoot
blindly at the sky
being sure to kill a bird

competitions were soon organised
with a prize for the man who could kill
more than 30,000 birds in a day

worshipping followed destruction

as Martha was the last passenger pigeon
authors writing about extinction
often make a “strange pilgrimage”
to see her remains in Cincinnati Zoo

if I was the last known living woman
nobody would be there
to preserve my body and place it
on a Styrofoam bench next to a male
shot before I was born
Anne-Laure Coxam is based in Edinburgh. She is a native French speaker and writes in English. Her first pamphlet Toolbox Therapy was published by Sad Press in 2016. She had poems published in magazines such as Datableed, Gutter, Erotoplasty and Poetry Scotland, and in anthologies such as Wretched Strangers (Boiler House Press) and Umbrellas of Edinburgh (Freight Books.)

In addition to poetry, she has written and delivered bilingual performances about relationships, politics and poetry. the male and the female poet go to the surgery in exciting times and other poems is her first full collection.

the male and the female poet go to the surgery... by Anne-Laure Coxam

Read another poem by Anne-Laure Coxam

about Anne-Laure Coxam

Contact Us