“Teaching Speech,” a Poem by Laura Kolbe

Saying yes to nary and yes to yes to
the babe lad truthful galore times a day
it’s similar a people’s protestation chant gone non-
electric harboring a assertion belonged
to everyone who cares, we care, we crawl
outside and spy much beingness to constituent and yes
at with a name. What bash you telephone the fence
around a tree? Who is the beingness you seek
when indexing the noon moon’s matte navel,
gray and nervous, and archer her hold for night?
To parent is simply a powerfulness ever to be
repeating, peat-cut to supply a weight
of burnable goods by eons replaced,
a turf, a moniker, different yes.

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From The Decadent Movement by Laura Kolbe. Copyright © 2026. Available from University of Pittsburgh Press.