Wilderness

by Bernadette Mayer & Philip Good

There’s strange wilderness, vanishing wilderness,
wilderness love, cry wilderness, camp wilderness,
out of wilderness, the last great wilderness,
the wilderness years, scenic wilderness
and the wilderness horror movies

Near Amsterdam is Oostvaardersplassen
A prehistoric park created by re–wilding
There’s a wilderness walking distance from here
but I can’t get to it now, there’s too much snow
There’s no humans there, just a mink and an aurochs

the Renssalear plateau, a geologic formation
is a wildlife corridor I live at the southern end of
my neighbor saw a mountain lion, another a moose
I hear owls, see coyotes and non–wilderness varmints
Help me find a wilderness to make love not war in

When Sophia said, “guess where I am?’
She was exploring a wilderness in
St. Louis created from an abandoned neighborhood
Out of abandonment in America, city wilderness

We’ve all seen it in movies; is digital the same
as genetically engineered? Is real life hell
heaven wilderness? Is wilderness a fantasy?
Show me the way to go home, I’m tired and I wanna
go to hell to ring the fantasy bell to dress for dinner

Sweet berries ripen in the wilderness are served
Let’s serve sweet berries in the wilderness
Let’s get lost in the wilderness of this poem
Can a poem catch the essence of wilderness? Does
it smell like the fresh dew on a summer’s day?

Oh come off it, maybe the dew’s frozen, it’s winter
It’s night: frozen stuff doesn’t smell much
We pretend the diaper’s dewy but the wilderness trees’ve
Been chain–sawed so mushroom spores can grow and
Shroom mouths to eat you as you wonderfully walk by

Whatever the frozen mushroom dewiness do you mean?
Perhaps it was written a million years ago
in the wilderness notebook or
The Idiots Guide to Wilderness
Whichever rules wanderers everywhere wonder about

I’m just saying there’s no humans here
Maybe we can (make some) cash in on fantasies
Making the wilderness right there in your head
While you wander in a field of blue daffodils
Looking for home in the heart of an ornamental
purple caulif lower from Wilderness for Dummies

Since some believe there is no wilderness left
We will dream of those friendly utopian places
Create new landscapes for imaginary animals
As if a time traveler corrected all the wrongs
That humans caused to harm