Biosphere 2: One Poem by Eric Magrane

Six Short Movements Regarding Control

south lung

we began and finished with the same amount of water
            but the air was a different story

open the door & watch the lung slowly descend
 

cactus wren

or two cactus wrens both male who it seems have decided
to stay in the desert that is a facsimile of a desert

the humans speak of their tinpot nest-making skills under glass
but who are they to begrudge this slight pleasure

not to be explained away by biology
 

overheard conversation

they had a conundrum
they had a big problem
 

the beach

a little surrealist poem might include
a desk on a beach under glass
and a poet writing something about
humans as the confounding variable

but about wouldn’t be the right word
taking the wave machine into account
 

three acres topside, two acres technosphere

ecosystem services transparent in the pipes
 

hillslopes

 
the cognitive leap one must make standing
beneath slopes wired for knowing the future

if we stop the rain, turn up the heat, or prescribe
a deluge, stripping out the wind accounting

for intricacies, taking
the measure where science is

a work of metaphor and where data
come in many forms