I’ve read The Selkie by Morgan Võ several times now. I enjoy it, but I’ve also been trying to figure it out. Võ says, “Writing The Selkie was trying to describe a world and discern certain factors or dimensions of that world.”
And The Selkie does test its dimensions in several directions. It seems like a novel to me, as well as a book of poems. There are performance pieces, recurring characters, and a world full of discoveries including the discovery of words, heard and seen in a new way.
A fish, for example, becomes money, not as an item in a trade, a quid pro quo, a tit for tat, but metamorphic currency, the fish is the dollar.
by accident or mistake
one of the fish
gets shuffled in with the cash
the monger fails to notice
a clammy white tail
poking out from his wallet
the banker takes it
she washes her hands but
she does that after
every touch
the arm passes it out
in just one week
the fish is used to pay for
an oil change
a bag of candy
a seafood platter
margarine
tickets to Black Adam
a discount prescription for albuterol
discount ammo
lavender-scented candles
a toll
weeks and months
and years go by
eventually
the fish gets sworn in two
then taped together again
then passed back out
by a firmly held hand
I didn’t know what a selkie was and had to look it up. A selkie is a creature that can change its form from a seal into an alluring human. The fish in the poem above is like a selkie itself. In the poem that follows, I learned a new word too, pocosin, an important word nowadays that everyone should know, that important point where land and water meet, and vulnerable life begins to breathe.
the monger and his wife
sitting at the table
the monger has a legal
pad and pen
he asks
and she replies
favorite food?
succor
favorite color?
champagne
favorite animal?
the crane
favorite actor?
cher
favorite season?
late spring
favorite movie?
splash
favorite novel?
the idiot
favorite phrase?
such as it is
favorite meal?
a stewed squid i had in venice
favorite memory?
flying kites from a lighthouse
favorite class in school?
there was this one class
i took on weekends
in junior high
we’d meet at a wetlands preserve
and gather soil samples
and samples of the water
to map the acidity
of the area
it held some of the last pocosins
in virginia
peaty bogs full of shrub life
mrs. cantrell
would speak like she was
telling us stories
they were stories of admiration
and the loss at the same time
of respect for
all the incredible resources
specialized habitats offer wildlife
and the greater world pocosin
are excellent carbon sinks
they help with flood control
and filter water
they can be crucial to migrating birds
because berries go uneaten there
i know I learned all kinds
of important things
when I was in school
but going out there regularly
becoming intimate with that place
and learning what made it unique
understanding what the loss
of that uniqueness would mean
was an early experience
of knowing that learning was
important to me
something i would continue to do
favorite fruit?
persimmons
favorite vegetable?
fresh scapes
favorite dessert?
chocolate cake
favorite show?
i’m not sure
the monger nods
he’s writing everything down
i see i see
he says
tapping his pen on
his pad
In April, I recorded Morgan Vō reading from The Selkie at the Poetry Project. You will find that reading on the Vimeo below. Enjoy.
The Selkie is published by The Song Cave. You can check it out here;
https://the-song-cave.com/products/the-selkie-by-morgan-vo
At the Poetry Project, Võ also read poems from a new book he’s working on, Wedge World. “A world,” he says, “that we are participating in, us and certain forms of wholesomeness.”
Some of Wedge World is in the link below.
Morgan Võ – A Perfect Vacuum
from Wedge World
