I Sense My Spinosaurus Lover Has Been Found and Suddenly I Remember Everything
After Elena Zhang
Here you are, belly up, delivered
by a shock of coarse sand. You refuse to leave
me even now. Through the cool dark
we walked, side by side, for a lick
of water. The sun dropped
into plush green every night. We made use
of the black, rich with
dragonflies. In our ancient river’s
bed, your bones
call. A tooth,
a leg, the digger’s shout when they find you,
the fireflies, the forest, the rush
of sea. Ninety million years
you’ve lain under layers of rock.
Twenty-four years I’ve looked
my best under lobby light, traced
the brief curve of forgetting.
Heat rises. They plaster
you. They slip you into a net.
I want
us on every brochure. I want them to know
how it felt to walk over glittering water,
old light on our skin.
Arushee Bhoja
Arushee Bhoja is a queer Indian-American poet from California. She lives in Maryland with her cats, Frog and Toad.
Why This Knocked Taylor Out:
Well first off, the fact that we are getting poems that are "after" a poem we published is an honor and a really exciting moment for us in this journey. And like also, this is an amazing poem on its own!!!
That opening line really hit me. Enjambing on "belly up, delivered" is such a wild and rad move that I'm always looking for in poems. Actually I think the opening and closing lines of this poem are just incredible. The poem really carries itself between these two points well.
I also just think you could put your finger down at any moment in this poem and have a banger line. Each sentence is worth spending some time with to understand its relation both to the whole poem and to the poem it's after!
And like the “I want” out there on its own, come on! That is what poetry is all about! I love little moments like that where the poem is just slightly shifted in meaning by a single two words and a lil white space!
Interview:
Why did you choose Team Taylor for this poem?
It’s a dinosaur love poem! I also think the themes I write about align well with what Taylor looks for in poems.
How do you see this poem in conversation with this poem from BRAWLER Elena Zhang? What about Elena's poem spoke to you and spurred this one on?
I was so inspired the first time I read Elena Zhang’s poem. I was already brainstorming a dinosaur-themed poem and her poem got me thinking . . . if a dinosaur skeleton can feel emotions, how would they feel about being separated from their partner for years? How would they feel about being taken and displayed at a museum? Would they start to forget their past? I was especially struck by the final lines of Elena’s poem: “Maybe in another ninety million years I’ll forget the way you looked in marbled sunlight. The way I’ve forgotten my mother’s name, and the smell of ferns and tree sap, and the wetness of seeing.”
While working on this poem, I realized I was also examining my thoughts on queer love, visibility, and displacement. The dinosaur in the poem longs for the world to know the beauty of their love and to be with their partner again. At the same time, the dinosaurs are separated when taken from their place of rest, their home is disrespected, and they’re used as a spectacle for the public. I enjoyed using this narrative to represent important parts of the queer experience, and more broadly, the experience of holding marginalized identities. Overall, I see this poem as a response to the ideas raised by Elena’s poem and an exploration of the space and time before hers takes place.
How does this poem connect to any larger body of work you are working on? Is this like the stuff you normally write or is this a deviation? What other larger projects are you potentially working on right now?
I would consider this poem to be a deviation from what I normally write. In my work, I often directly address themes of identity, family, and culture. To me, this poem is getting at the same core but through a more unique lens, which is something I’m interested in doing more often. In terms of larger projects, I am still discovering my style and creating new work!