Two Poems by Jordan Davis: 'Otters' and 'The Mpemba Effect'

by Mark Bibbins, Editor

The Mpemba Effect

In a world
Where a ragtag band
Of misfits and raw recruits
Can go up against the forces of empire

The question remains:
Will cold water or hot freeze faster?

Everything you know is wrong,
Everything you think a tagline:
Fear the sky

Everywhere the eye falls,
Four plasma screens tumble
The message table of someone
The state recognizes as a person,

And underneath it all, the truth — 
The worst bitch ever.

As for me, I like liking.
I like living, too — but
Liking!

There you have it. I’m a liker.

Otters

So much of poetry
Is filled with stuff
That fills poetry. Also,
This stuff is so often
Arranged in a way
Stuff is arranged
In poetry. We ought
To get together
And steal time
From our jobs
To put stuff
In poetry
That wasn’t
There before,
And arrange it
In a way stuff
Isn’t usually arranged.

Click here to watch
A video of otters
Floating, holding hands.

Jordan Davis’s poems have appeared in Poetry and Ploughshares, and he writes about poetry for The Nation and the Constant Critic.

For more poetry, visit The Poetry Section’s vast archive! You may contact the editor at [email protected].