fractal
Photo by Fattal Photography on Adobe Stock

So Far

We're on our last legs, and the legs are last to go;

the best metaphors die young, reborn as cliches.

We live the wrong ideas of chaos and order;

they're not villain and hero, but mother and father:

alone, each as dead as the other; nothing laid,

nothing made. If I waited until my so-called work

was done, I'd never finish a thought,

let alone                               a poem.

O, Mandelbrot, o, Mandelbrot, the measure

of a coast is not what it seems, each inlet

spawning its miniature, every towered turtle

a fractal made of fractals. We are the broccoli

and salmon we eat and which will us consume.

So far, what looks like waste is all that sustains

About the Author

Julie Benesh

Julie Benesh is author of the chapbook ABOUT TIME published by Cathexis Northwest Press. Her poetry collection INITIAL CONDITIONS is forthcoming in March 2024 from Saddle Road Press. She has been published in Tin House, Another Chicago Magazine, Florida Review, and many other places. She earned an MFA from The Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College and received an Illinois Arts Council Grant. She teaches writing craft workshops at the Newberry Library and has day jobs as a professor, department chair, and management consultant. She holds a PhD in human and organizational systems. Read more at juliebenesh.com.