K B Nelson

Longest Day of the Year

I’m replanting my herb garden

the spring of this dark year

for the third time.

We watch 

bystander videos

we witness

fragrant leaves wilt & wither, 

snip & gather them   see 

masked marchers kneel 

as talking heads assert

the roots are rotted beyond salvation. 

Chop the leaves onto pasta or tomatoes—

 quick fixes  

ad hoc solutions

but that’s not sustainable . 

Perhaps the very soil is blighted,

we consider the option to 

upend the pot

oven-scorch the earth to

 preserve the best part, yet

kill the spores & rot or just

start afresh with fertile new soil. 

calls echo: “－defund－defund－”

I narrow my focus

Plant new herbs with bright green promise, 

set the pot in a well-lit place 

shun  shadows

& anticipate the healthful new.

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Marina Carreira (she/they) is a queer Luso-American poet artist from Newark, NJ. She is the author of TantoTanto (Cavankerry Press, forthcoming 2022) and Savethe Bathwater (Get Fresh Books, 2018) . She has exhibited her art at Morris Museum, ArtFront Galleries, West Orange Arts Council, Monmouth University Center for the Arts, among others. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and is pursuing a D.Litt. in Fine Arts and Media. Her work investigates identity as it relates to gender, urban, queer, and bicultural first-generation spaces. Keep up with her at hellomarinacarreira.com.