tsunami vs. the fukushima 50

Lee Ann Roripaugh

Description

Full galley quantities available for sales force, media, and booksellers

Major media and poetry outreach with specialized campaigns focused on booksellers, women’s digital media, and regional media to capitalize on poet’s status as Poet Laureate of South Dakota

Advertising in Poetry and American Poets

South Dakota launch and touring to Chicago, Minneapolis, and Iowa City

Collaboration with author on substantial newsletter and social media promotional push; targeted newsletter outreach to poetry lists of more than 20,000 contacts

Promotional broadside offered, to be distributed with bookseller campaigns, as well as at conferences such as AWP

Book’s focus on the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster provides opportunities for crossover media into larger markets interested in environmental consequences, and disaster similar in scope to Chernobyl

Strong blurbs forthcoming; author’s previous work has been lauded by Ishmael Reed, Stephanie Burt, and Ray Gonzalez

Author is Poet Laureate of South Dakota

Author has been widely published in Poetry, Poem-a-Day, and Southeast Review
ontology of tsunami


awoken venom

cobra come uncharmed

glittering rush
of fanged lightning
that strikes
and strikes again

tsunami has no name

call her the scalded splash
of tea jarred from
a broken cup’s cracked glaze

call her the blood-soaked shirt
and cut-away pants
pooled ruby on the floor / rising biohazard

ill-omened oil that stills
the wings of birds

she spills
and spills
and spills over

a sloshed bucket
tipped-over pitcher
the bent tin cup’s
cool sluice of rinse
poured over skin’s
delicious prickle

ginger’s cleansing sting
erasing the soft flesh of fish
from the tongue

she goes by no name



call her annihilatrix

call her tabula rasa

she’s the magic slate’s
crackling cellophane page

shellacked wings un-clung
from staticky black elytra

the liminal torn-open, turning
words into invisible birds lifting
unruly as catastrophe

yes, but / and . . .

(if only, if only--
meticulous swift precision
of disaster’s Swiss watch)

she remains unnamed

call her the meme
infecting your screen

call her the mal-ware
gone viral




radioactive man


the papers started calling me
Radioactive Man after tests from
the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
revealed the highest radiation levels
in anyone they’d ever screened

I guess I’m the champion, I joke
to reporters who come for interviews
like visitors from another planet

bulky and brightly awkward
in white hazmat suits, they look
like mourners at a Buddhist funeral

and so I light a cigarette to dangle
from the corner of my lip and grin

even eight miles away, in Tomioka,
the sound of Reactor 4 exploding
was completely unmistakable,
so I took my elderly parents south
to my aunt in Iwaki, who refused
to even open her door to us because
she said we were contaminated

then we tried a temporary shelter
but it was full, so we came home
again to the no go zone, and when
other relatives agreed to take in
my parents, I stayed behind
to care for the abandoned animals

I’ve seen many terrible things:
cages filled with withered songbirds,
horses left to starve in their stalls,
an abandoned puppy that grew
too big for the chain around its neck

I rescue as many as I can:
the dog trapped inside a barn


for months, who survived by eating
the dead flesh of starved cattle

or the feral ostrich so vicious
the police who border patrol
the nuclear exclusion zone
armed with Geiger counters
nicknamed her The Boss

all over Tomioka, the animals
recognize the sound of my truck,
and come running to meet me
when I make my daily rounds

many come to stay with me
at my family’s old rice farm

living without water
or electricity in the ruins
of the town where I was born
is sometimes very lonely

I wait for cancer or leukemia
and joke to The Boss about
becoming a superhero through
a radioactive ostrich bite

sometimes I think of visiting
my two kids, who live
with my ex-wife in Tokyo,
but then I remind myself
of the invisible dust coated
in cesium particles that’s in
my clothes, my hair, my skin

I remember I can see my future
in the sick animals I care for

in the American Watchmen comics,
Dr. Manhattan was once tricked
into believing he’d given everyone
he ever loved cancer, through
exposure to his radioactive body


just the thought of this undid him,
made him feel so solitary and blue
he left the earth behind for eons,
to brood in exile on the moon




hungry tsunami / tsunami as galactus

the hunger of trying to hold back
the hunger a little bit longer

the hunger of restraint and pullback
churn and growl of beached fishes
in an agitated bouillabaisse
liquid silver squirming on an empty shore


to lick the gilding from the buildings
like golden drizzles of caramel

to take the cake / flick off the crumbs

to raze the fruit / spit out the pits

the hunger of sucked-out marrow
the unwillingly pried-open oyster
the cracked and pillaged lobster claw

to shuck / to husk / to unshell
her way to what’s most tender

to dismantle the protective scrims
that signal a cache of rawness

to demolish defenseless succulence

the hunger for the liquid center
squirt of ganache in a swiss truffle
chocolate lava cake’s molten fondant core

to feed past the end of greed

to feast past the end of want

to gorge past the borders of voraciousness
until she becomes the monstrous goddess
of binge / pure mercenary lack





the blooded face

blood in the water

the blood moon’s exposed sweet throat
with its lipsticked jugular bitten clean out
CONTENTS

ontology of tsunami
dreaming tsunami
tsunami goes to canada
animal portents foretell the rise of tsunami
radioactive man
hungry tsunami / tsunami as galactus
mothra flies again
shapeshifter tsunami: a scary epithalamium
miki endo as flint marko (a.k.a. sandman)
tsunami battles the pink robots / French poststructuralist tsunami
year of the hitachi snake
beautiful tsunami
hulk smash
tsunami as misguided kwannon
white tsubame
tsunami grrlsplains allergies
anonymous, as invisible man
tsunami’s debris
ama, the woman of the sea
kikuchi octopus
emo tsunami
song of the mutant super boars
hisako’s testimony (as x-men’s armor)
origin of tsunami
ghosts of the tohoku coast
tsunami in love: kintsukuroi / golden joinery
origami of tsunami: a technical manual and glossary

Acknowledgments

Sujets

• Women Authors
• contemporary
• Fukushima (Fukushima)
• América
• Asian American
• Poetry
• Places
• Japan
• American
• Fukushima
• Nature

Informations

• Publié par: Milkweed Editions
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 0001
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781571319494
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

Extrait

TSUNAMI vs. the FUKUSHIMA 50
ALSO BY LEE ANN RORIPAUGH
Dandarians
On the Cusp of a Dangerous Year
Year of the Snake
Beyond Heart Mountain
TSUNAMI vs. the FUKUSHIMA 50
poems Lee Ann Roripaugh
MILKWEED EDITIONS
2019, Text by Lee Ann Roripaugh
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher: Milkweed Editions, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Suite 300, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415.
[phone]
milkweed.org
Published 2019 by Milkweed Editions
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design by Mary Austin Speaker
Cover artwork by Chie Yoshii: Dragon . Oil on wood panel.
Author photo by Cathy Flum
19 20 21 22 23 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition
Milkweed Editions, an independent nonprofit publisher, gratefully acknowledges sustaining support from the Ballard Spahr Foundation; the Jerome Foundation; the McKnight Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Target Foundation; and other generous contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals. Also, this activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund, and a grant from Wells Fargo. For a full listing of Milkweed Editions supporters, please visit milkweed.org .

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Roripaugh, Lee Ann, author.
Title: Tsunami vs. the Fukushima 50 : poems / Lee Ann Roripaugh.
Description: First edition. Minneapolis, Minnesota : Milkweed Editions, 2019.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018033636 (print) LCCN 2018034332 (ebook) ISBN 9781571319494 (ebook) ISBN 9781571314857 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Classification: LCC PS3568.O717 (ebook) LCC PS3568.O717 A6 2019 (print) DDC 811/.54-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018033636
Milkweed Editions is committed to ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book production practices with this principle, and to reduce the impact of our operations in the environment. We are a member of the Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the world s endangered forests and conserve natural resources. tsunami vs. the fukushima 50 was printed on acid-free 30% postconsumer-waste paper by Versa Press.
This book is a tribute to, in memory and honor of, the victims and survivors of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, and the subsequent Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
For heroes, both visible and invisible.
For the ferocity of women. May we all survive and rise.
For the troubled legacies and unexpected gifts of trauma: the wounds and the superpowers, the hypervigilance, the Mothra-like antennae.
For Kundiman, beautiful poetry tribe.
For sisters, chosen family, and friends: Emily Haddad, Cathy Flum, Susan Wolfe, Pen Pearson, Caroline Hong, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Lindy Obach, Bridget Jacobs, Katy Beem, Natanya Ann Pulley, and Darlene Farabee, among many others, with love.
For all of my many wonderful colleagues and students at the University of South Dakota, the University of Nebraska MFA in Writing, and the Carlow University MFA in Writing, with much gratitude for your inspiration and community.
For all of the mentors, editors, journals, presses, and reading venues who have supported my work over the years with such kindness and generosity-including a special thanks to Daniel Slager and the entire staff of Milkweed Editions.
For Nobu, Aiko, Nanami, Kuzuri, Yuki, Tampopo, Genji, Muku, Kenji, Ten-chan, and Kumo.
And, with love always, for Bruce, my sweet giant, who fills the cracks with gold.
contents
ontology of tsunami
dreaming tsunami
tsunami goes to canada
animal portents foretell the rise of tsunami
radioactive man
hungry tsunami / tsunami as galactus
mothra flies again
shapeshifter tsunami: a scary epithalamium
miki endo as flint marko (a.k.a. sandman)
tsunami battles the pink robots / french poststructuralist tsunami
year of the hitachi snake
beautiful tsunami
hulk smash
tsunami as misguided kwannon
white tsubame
tsunami grrlsplains allergies
anonymous, as invisible man
tsunami s debris
ama, the woman of the sea
kikuchi octopus
emo tsunami
song of the mutant super boars
hisako s testimony (as x-men s armor)
origin of tsunami
ghosts of the tohoku coast
tsunami in love: kintsukuroi / golden joinery
origami of tsunami: a technical manual and glossary
acknowledgments
When man falls into conflict with nature, monsters are born.
- The Return of Godzilla (1985)
TSUNAMI vs. the FUKUSHIMA 50
ontology of tsunami

awoken venom

cobra come uncharmed

glittering rush
of fanged lightning
that strikes
and strikes again

tsunami has no name

call her the scalded splash
of tea jarred from
a broken cup s cracked glaze

call her the blood-soaked shirt
and cutaway pants
pooled ruby on the floor / rising biohazard

ill-omened oil that stills
the wings of birds

she spills
and spills
and spills over

a sloshed bucket
tipped-over pitcher

the bent tin cup s
cool sluice of rinse
poured over skin s
delicious prickle

ginger s cleansing sting
erasing the soft flesh of fish
from the tongue

she goes by no name

call her annihilatrix

call her tabula rasa

she s the magic slate s
crackling cellophane page

shellacked wings un-clung
from staticky black elytra

the liminal torn-open, turning
words into invisible birds lifting
unruly as catastrophe

yes, but / and

(if only, if only-
meticulous swift precision
of disaster s Swiss watch)

she remains unnamed

call her the meme
infecting your screen

call her the malware
gone viral
dreaming tsunami

maybe she was sleeping:
a dream of fishes helixed
in spiraling schools
anemone s veronicas
ouroboros of sea snakes
the chambered nautilus s
slow-whorled tornadoes

( hypnosis of dust motes )

girl in the grass face down
soiled focus, brain s green blur
lens wheezing in and out
of tiny myopias: ant, gnat,
midge, aphid, no-see-um
Nanking cherry petals
sickened swirl / snapdragons
red mouths pinched open
to the waking dream
from which she can t awaken

( hypnosis of dust motes )

mosquito stuck in her ear
too scared to tell / can t hear
above the buzzing
ambered seal of earwax
fevering one side of her face

she drowns at night
in deep cold sweat / dreams
she s a sea monster

( hypnosis of dust motes / dead calm )

where are the fault lines
she hides along the floorboards?

what happens when she wakens
from this clam before the thorn?
tsunami goes to canada

she liked the clouds
which coasted down close
spoke to her sotto voce
in the glamorous
language of nebulizers

go away they seemed
to breathe (though not unkindly )
before sucking her deeper in

she stared smitten
at the mountains / stricken
afflicted by them
besotted in the lunch room
with an unquenchable crush

though maybe she worried too much
about bears / about pepper spray

the falls gave her strange ideas
about froth
and glitter
and churn
and spume
and spill

maybe someday she would pull back
and let it all go to fall like that

a silvery levering of pachinko balls

a cat vomiting from a great height

perched swirl of vertigo lurching
on the mountainside switchback

no taking back the swoon
animal portents foretell the rise of tsunami

when elephants kneel
pressing their trunks
down to the ground
like seismic antennae

when mole rats head-drum
adumbrations / listen for
predictions / augured jawbones
snugged to tunnel walls

when cats spill from windows
slip through opened doors
some welder s torch sizzle
fizzing the tips of their whiskers

when insect swarms clot the shore
in a frantic tangled macram
and hippopotamuses bellow