Today
by Declan Melchoir
I took my bike out today and
saw a crow bathing itself
black feathers flicking ash & smoke away
in a muddy, water-logged commercial lot.
they are revitalizing industrial downtown, just across
from the only quintuple lattice truss railway bridge
in the United States. I assume
this is all here because I visited today. the lot will be
gone by summer and absent of ash-speckled puddles
rained down from the Cascades Tissue Group—
as the river winds carry it over,
through neo-romanesque steeples of
churchgoing lumber-people.
> two days from now, I will forget to pull the cord
for the bus stop across from the Y2K-era church
assembling voters from rusted sedans and vans
to find two crows
scouring the muddy snow of a front lawn, no standing
water ready for them. the empty lot is replaced
with midwestern suburbs and I will be all but sure
neglected Myosotis alpestris are to appear
come spring. ripped, unrepairable shoes
struggle to find footing in concrete
sidewalks patched and remade for newer
anti-industrial perennials.
> a week from now, I will think back to the crows
as a moment separated from any hand-drawn plans
where I'll spot another crow
that never had any interest in looking back at us when I pass
its perch on a highway sign
declaring distance as a unit of measure /
and nothing more.
[it's still beautiful.] so I
bike onwards, over the bridge and through
the sun as it falls over the ash.
Declan Melchoir is an aspiring writer and musician based all around Wisconsin. He began performing in high school and that momentum has carried him into the creative writing program at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where he writes in his free time and plays to whoever will listen.
Crows and Dilapidated Industries: An Interview with Declan Melchoir on Writing Through Experience and History
Emily Rutzinski: To start, what does your writing process usually begin with or look like?
Declan Melchoir: A lot of it tends to be research oriented! I love doing research for poetry and I think it's really fascinating to learn about the history of local towns and cities. Especially for this poem, I wrote it about the Cascades Tissue Group and the High Bridge in Eau Claire. My writing process is influenced by research on local history and a lot of free writing. I put a lot of faith in my unconscious, so it tends to be whatever comes to mind. I usually hate editing, so I let whatever I’m thinking come through.
ER: When do you find time to write or how do you decide what to write about?
DM: I haven’t written a poem in a few months to be honest. Sometimes it's hard for me to write just in general, but when I do write it is more journaling and how I destress. I write about things that are personal to me or things that are stuck in my mind, so I write it down and get it all out if I can.
ER: Your poem combines and often juxtaposes natural elements and urban and townified settings. Where did you find inspiration for these elements?
DM: I tend to draw a lot from experience. When I wrote this poem I was living in an apartment right next to a church and had to take a bus to get to and from school, so a lot of it was influenced by things I would do everyday and the process of living, essentially. I draw upon my own experiences and try to connect those with a broader narrative, and then connect that broader narrative to local history with research to support it. Really, it's an amalgamation of everything in my life. Also, I was really obsessed with crows at that time: I was noticing them all over and seeing them everywhere I went.
ER: You use this beautiful, ongoing imagery of a crow. How did you decide on this symbol?
DM: I’m not very knowledgeable about poetry or symbolism in general, so I didn’t really make any literary connections to it. I think I saw the crow more as a symbol of this industrial town that we kinda live in and have a history of. I really wanted to bring that out in the imagery of a crow bathing itself in ash and industrial death.
ER: What advice do you have to other authors wanting to write or submit their own work?
DM: I submitted to Barstow & Grand at BJ Hollars’ request, and it seemed like a really cool publication that was small enough that I felt comfortable submitting to because it was a local and quaint magazine. I also follow Chill Subs which is a compilation of different publications you can submit to whether it's for fiction, poetry, prose, nonfiction, reviews. As for submitting and writing, you kinda just have to throw stuff out there, there's really no other way around it. Just keep writing, because you’re not gonna write anything or get published anywhere if you don’t keep writing.