The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
There was always something—goose, snow, bomb—
falling in factions from the patchwork sky.
Feelings of grief were shared in the healing circle.
We lost sixteen species of tanager,
a deckle-edged copy of Measure for Measure.
Riding our gondolas to the aneurysmal altitudes
of ice-mantled cliffsides, tracking
the growth of our terrariums
squirming with blister beetles, we smelled
our funny smells, & drank our banana slushies,
half-laughing, half-crying, as the casket-lift
lowered the last of our caskets into the earth.
We didn’t know how much we would miss us.
To soothe us, the mannequin we called mother
bought us a stuffed, baby mammoth.
Matthew Tuckner received his MFA in Creative Writing at NYU and is currently a PhD candidate in English/Creative Writing at University of Utah. His debut collection of poems, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, is forthcoming from Four Way Books. His chapbook, Extinction Studies, is the winner of 2023 Sixth Finch Chapbook Prize. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in AGNI, American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, The Nation, The Adroit Journal, and Best New Poets 2023, among others.
Insta and X: @Tuckner_Matthew
