All in by January Gill O'Neil
by January Gill O’Neil
From the freezer, my daughter removes
a gallon bag of dull green scraps, plops them
into boiling water, and watches them simmer
into a funk of vegetable blood.
She understands reduction, appreciates
the economics of brine, what it means
not to waste nor want, the papery onions
disappearing before her eyes.
In the kitchen, everything gets an afterlife,
given enough time and the right touch
on a chilled February evening. Lauryn Hill
spins a groove on the turntable singing
about how everything is everything
as the greens cook down, reduced to
a silky soup, the soupy leavings discarded.
What’s left she pours into a blue and white bowl,
steam swirling above the rim. How easily
my daughter turns nothing into something.
This humble dish, ladling what time delivers,
needs croutons. Maybe some lemon zest.
____________________________________________________________
January Gill O'Neil is an associate professor at Salem State University and the author of Glitter Road, Rewilding, Misery Islands, and Underlife, all published by CavanKerry Press. The former executive director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, her poems have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, the Academy of American Poets' Poem-A-Day series, The Nation, and Poetry, among others. She currently serves as the 2022-2025 board chair of AWP.
by January Gill O'Neil
I love a wild daffodil,
the one that grows
where she’s planted—
along a wooded highway
left to her own abandon,
but not abandoned.
Her big yellow head
leaning toward or away
from the sun. Not excluded
but exclusive, her trumpet
heralds no one, not even
the Canada geese—
their long-necked honks
announcing their journey.
She’ll be here less
than a season, grace us
with green slender stems,
strong enough to withstand
rain and spring’s early chill.
And when she goes,
what remains she’ll bury
deep inside the bulb of her,
take a part of me with her
until she returns.
______________________________________________________________
January Gill O'Neil is an associate professor at Salem State University, and the author of Rewilding (2018), Misery Islands (2014), and Underlife (2009), all published by CavanKerry Press. Previously, she worked as executive director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, and currently serves on the boards of AWP, Mass Poetry, and Montserrat College of Art. O’Neil has received fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Cave Canem, Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, and the University of Mississippi, Oxford.
