Halee Kirkwood

Trickle-down Economics


If you feed enough oats to the horse
some will pass through to feed the sparrows
—John Kenneth Galbraith

Begin in 1896
a presidential candidate
first uses leak as metaphor
we’ve tried to make it work for ages

tax breaks tax benefits capital
gain more jobs more growth
point A to point B uphill downhill
natural selection, tax brackets

 

Slosh of settlers through the sedges
naming wetlands waste
filled ditched & drained
pavement proof of prosperity

brackish swirl of upstream freshwater
salty tides tender nurseries
saltmarsh sparrows osprey kingfisher
dredged for mosquito eradication

for a rising tide lifts all boats

paddling through sloughs
of philanthropists lobbying
to deny hurricane survivors
financial relief

 

with swells of soil respiring
macerated into vernal pools
ephemeral with the ruckus of
spring peepers

and when we talk of sequestration

The action of taking legal possession
of assets until a debt has been paid off or
other claims of equal worth have been met
funding cuts for government programs

 

silver maples accumulating carbon
400 pounds worth in 25 years
shallow roots, clustered inflorescence
shimmering belly-up before a storm

weapons purchase minimized vet paychecks dogwood stable shoreline construction projects
bio-defense facility stalled WIC same old rotted oats Water lilies Turtles bask
Section 8 Mother housed Wood duck eggs Rotted trees

Halee Kirkwood is a poet, teaching artist, and bookseller living in Minneapolis. Kirkwood earned their MFA from Hamline University. They are a 2022 Indigenous Nations Poets fellow, a 2019–2020 Loft Mentor Series Fellow, and a recipient of a 2022 Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Support grant. Kirkwood is the winner of the 2022 James Welch Prize for Indigenous Artists, forthcoming with Poetry Northwest. Their work can be found in Poetry Magazine, Poem-A-Day, Water~Stone Review, and others. Kirkwood is the faculty editor of Runestone Journal, a national undergraduate literary annual. They are a direct descendant of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe.

ISSN 2472-338X
© 2022