Matt McBride
Wilsonville, OR
We play our shadows
below the lindens,
blooms muffled in netting.
50,000 dead bumblebees isn’t enough
to fill one parking spot. Still,
Collier Arbor Care
paid three cents a bee
to try. A pesticide called Safari.
On the label:
a single black tree, geometric,
between the blade of the land
and the blade of the sky,
casting a shadow
lighter than itself.
In order to protect patron’s cars from honeydew stains in the parking lot of Wilsonville’s Target, Collier Arbor Care was hired to spray insecticide on the blooming linden trees that were attracting the aphids which produce the syrupy honeydew. Collier used Dinotefuran (whose commercial version is named Safari) to treat the trees. Dinotefuran’s are a type of neonicotinoid, a class of insecticide thought to contribute to Colony Collapse Disorder.
Matt McBride reads “Wilsonville, OR ”
Matt McBride’s work has recently appeared in or is forthcoming from Court Green, Guernica, The Rupture, Rust + Moth, and Zone 3, among others. His first book, City of Incandescent Light, was published by Black Lawrence Press. His latest chapbook, The Mourners Forget Which Funeral They’re At, is forthcoming from Greying Ghost press. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Practice at Wilson College. He can be found online at www.mattmcbridepoetry.com