Close Talking

Connor and Jack discuss the sonically and thematically dense poem "Topsoil, in Repentance" by Sherry Shenoda. Shenoda's book MUMMY EATERS was longlisted for the National Book Award in 2022. The conversation moves from an exploration of internal rhymes and alliteration, to the climate crisis, to the religious implications of the word "repentance," to soil strata, and to the relative weight of humanity. You can find out more about Sherry Shenoda, here: https://www.sherryshenoda.com/ Read the poem, here: https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2022/march/topsoil-repentance-sherry-shenoda Topsoil, in Repentance By: Sherry Shenoda On my mind daily with the insistence of a metronome is that thin granular layer, rich humus, spare humility, black earth daily lifted and blown into the Gulf of Mexico. Thinnest of salvations with a margin of error wide as the pink, gelatinous body of the earthworm Which my spade barely misses, and every time my tines enter the ground, my wrist twists the damp loam, I breathe easier t