I Keep My Brown Coat as a Pet

Discovered alive—

my brown coat,

 

like the red farm house,

woods and snow,

 

hides from satellites,

rockets and drones

 

while I walk around drifts,

inspecting the earth and its melting.

 

I count with the bears

the “V’s” in survive,

 

“S’s” in emissions,

and how many grizzlies?

 

The lure in the air is the time

to walk among millions of words,

 

some considered weapons

or verse, others debris.

 

Discovered alive—

my mouth tries new words,

 

ballistic, radar, laser

and from memory,

 

short easy words,

fur, tree, brain

 

and from water,

my first word, fish.

 

—Elizabeth Krajeck (Marion County)

The Krajeck family coat and corresponding poem were first shown as part of an installation “Half of What We Are Is Broken” in a shrine built by the artist Steve Hubert. The coat and shrine were later included in another show at the Big Car Gallery, Indianapolis.

Elizabeth Krajeck is the author of two chapbooks. Her work inspired by Maria Magdalene Campos-Pons includes “Restoration Poetry,” prose poems based on residents in the Blue Triangle Residence Hall, performed at the United States of Mind, and “Half of What We Are Is Broken,” an installation with Angela Edwards and Steve Hubert at IUPUI’s Cultural Arts Center. Collaborations include urban retail postcard poems with the Lucas Gallery and projects with the former Ruschman Gallery. Krajeck is currently a community consultant and poet for Butler’s Center for Citizenship and Community.

Indiana Humanities is posting a poem a day from Indiana poets in celebration of National Poetry Month.