Poetry oration

Onset

BY KIM ADDONIZIO

Watching that frenzy of insects above the bush of white flowers,   

bush I see everywhere on hill after hill, all I can think of   

is how terrifying spring is, in its tireless, mindless replications.   

Everywhere emergence: seed case, chrysalis, uterus, endless manufacturing.

And the wrapped stacks of Styrofoam cups in the grocery, lately

I can’t stand them, the shelves of canned beans and soups, freezers   

of identical dinners; then the snowflake-diamond-snowflake of the rug

beneath my chair, rows of books turning their backs,

even my two feet, how they mirror each other oppresses me,

the way they fit so perfectly together, how I can nestle one big toe into the other

like little continents that have drifted; my God the unity of everything,

my hands and eyes, yours; doesn’t that frighten you sometimes, remembering

the pleasure of nakedness in fresh sheets, all the lovers there before you,

beside you, crowding you out? And the scouring griefs,

don’t look at them all or they’ll kill you, you can barely encompass your own;

I’m saying I know all about you, whoever you are, it’s spring   

and it’s starting again, the longing that begins, and begins, and begins.

spring is all about new beginnings, new life. baby animals are being born and plants sprouting. kim seams to dislike the spring in general, she seams to think of it as repetitive.  she finds a symmetry that almost no one else finds in spring.  she seams to feel trapped by the spring, like it happens over and over. like she is stuck in an endless loop that she has no control over. It also feels like something bad happened to her during the spring, that she is afraid of repeating itself. most likely something to do with her old partner. she misses him you can tell from the part "the longing that begins, and begins, and begins" she is saying that the pain of losing him doesnt end. it just becomes worse. "how i can nestle my big toe into the other" she talks about how that feeling oppreses her. They were really good together, they fit together well.