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

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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

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