Ish Klein

OLD WORLD RITES

You throw the trash in the volcano.
You get money for killing the rats.
The black rat’s pretty big. Gestation’s
not that long, at most twenty-four days,
a menstrual rate, must they all be killed?

A theory of dark matter is fur
The theory: simultaneous time
a human’s vying for the future
just any type of them to be well
in this physical realm’s projection.

It’s a policy of insurance.

Not the rat but the flea on the rat
Not the flea but the code in the flea
Not humans but the sugar they eat
To break a parallel someone dies.
For it’s the flea that needs the rat.

The old world, the old world, how can I—?
And look how we’re relatives now
pushed to the side. Rats weren’t born
knowing how to laugh, bargain, or dance,
just how to eat the nearest protein.

In this new film the kids are singing

ISH KLEIN is the author of four poetry books, most recently The New Sun Time (Canarium, 2020). She also authored the plays The Orchids, Drummer 41, “In A Word, Faust,” The Dee Men, and The Restless Leg. Her poems have appeared on the Poetry Foundation website, in Fence, and in Oversound. She is a founding member of the Connecticut River Valley Poets Theater (CRVPT) and Anthology Poets Theatre. She lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she produces and hosts the podcast “Wrestling with Poetry,” which is about pro wrestling and poetry.