thepoets

Di Brandt’s poem Zone: le Detroit is a mesmerizing work that focuses on how we have hurt our natural environment over the decades to the point that it’s coming back to haunt us. This 5-part poem considers how humankind lives a modern lifestyle without thinking of the consequences of their actions. Di Brandt’s poem forces us to rethink the way we live in the hopes that we can make changes for the better.

In part 1 she speaks:

Breathing yellow air
here, at the heart of the dream
of the new world,

The world of the poem is Ontario/Michigan - Detroit/Windsor, and all that free trade between Canada and the U.S.A entails as we trade our pollution with each other as well as our products and lifestyles.

In part 2 she speaks of a car ride on the 401 highway and how no one is driving to Windsor, which is across the river from Detroit, only people coming away from Windsor:

maybe it’s too late,
maybe we’re already dead,
maybe the war is over,
maybe we’re the only ones alive.

In part 3 Di Brandt explores the issue of chemical contamination of our environment using weed killer as an example:

or like I don’t care
about all these missing breasts,
how they just vanish
from our aching chests
and no one says a word,
and we just strap on fake ones
and the dandelions keep dying,
and the grass on our lawns
gets greener and greener
and greener

This poem is part of Di Brandt’s collection titled ‘Now You Care” published by Coach House Books in 2003. Her other works include “questions i asked my mother”, and “Agnes in the sky’, and “Jerusalem, beloved”.

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