Donika Kelly

A Poem to Remind Myself of the Natural Order of Things

You are of a mind, a reiteration 
along a different branch—our nearest, 
shared relative: a flat worm. 

You are in a jar, your tentacles both 
of themselves and you, spinning the lid 
from inside. O little octopus, 

I am full of questions.  How did this happen, 
this laboratory, this maze, the lights 
you short with a jet of water? Your camera’s 

eye, your hard beak, what you pulled 
along the ocean floor to your burrow? 
Where is the ocean? Who put you in the jar? 

What have they taught you to settle for?  
And what do they know of our several minds?

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Donika Kelly is the author of Bestiary (Graywolf 2016) and the chapbook Aviarium (500 Places 2017). Donika is a Cave Canem Graduate Fellow and winner of the 2018 Kate Tufts Discovery Prize. She is an assistant professor at St. Bonaventure University, where she teaches creative writing.