OXIDANT | ENGINE : Issue 11
John Liles
BLESS
​
A planet to mend, you lend
honey bees
:
kindred ignitions
into the blue
unforgiving
to persist scintillas, to spark open wax
and induce
the workhorse’s engines
hailing baby-faced and yellow-bellied
bombardments
who masticate blossoms,
gristle and grasp
and this is how we survive this
oh unending animals, you go
where the light goes
John Liles is a poet, science writer, and living chordate. His chapbook, Following the dog down, was the recipient of the 2015 Omnidawn Chapbook Prize. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Journal, Rust+Moth, Arcadia, inter/rupture, decomP, among others, and has been used as course material for science writing workshops. He is a graduate of the MFA program at NYU.