Poem: 'A Spaghetti That Grows on Trees'

Amelia Martens is the author of “The Spoons in the Grass Are There to Dig a Moat” (Sarabande Books, 2016), and four poetry chapbooks, including “Ursa Minor” (elsewhere magazine, 2018). She is the recipient of a 2019 Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council; her work has also been supported by a Sustainable Arts Foundation fellowship to Rivendell Writers’ Colony and by the Kentucky Foundation for Women. The title of the poem above comes from Bradford Angier’s book “How to Stay Alive in the Woods: A complete Guide to Food, Shelter and Self-Preservation That Makes Starvation in the Wilderness Next to Impossible.” She met her husband in the Indiana University MFA program; together they have created the Rivertown Reading Series, “Exit 7: A Journal of Literature and Art” and two awesome daughters.

Featured image courtesy of Attilio D’Agostino.

This story originally appeared in ALIVE Volume 18, Issue 2. The digital version is available now. You can also order a print copy or purchase a subscription online.