Codex Exterminarius By Kim Goldberg by Consilience published on 2021-06-20T19:10:52Z About The Poet Kim Goldberg is the author of eight books of poetry and nonfiction. Her most recent is Devolution, poems and fables of ecopocalypse (Caitlin Press, 2020). In a former life she was an environmental journalist. And earlier still, a biology graduate from University of Oregon. She lives on Vancouver Island where she has been known to stage pop-up poetry events in underpasses, parks and weedy waysides. Twitter: @KimPigSquash. About The Science ‘Codex Exterminarius’ is a mapping of our cultural genome in an age of post-peak oil. Each pair of conjoined words at the centre of every line is car model names. The bonding letters conform to the molecular structure of DNA by replicating the Adenine-Thymine (A-T) and Guanine-Cytosine (G-C) base pairs that cement the double helix. Every genetic code is a narrative assembly preconfiguring a developmental trajectory. The trajectory of this cultural genome would appear to open with idyllic bliss (“sonatA=Tempo”) and conclude with apocalypse (“omegA=Talon”). The setting for the poem is the Nanaimo River Estuary on Vancouver Island, where young salmon (smolts) with their large black eyes hide in the eelgrass before going out to sea. In Nanaimo Harbour beyond the estuary freighters stacked high with new cars from Europe (via the Panama Canal) are anchored before unloading. Despite car-makers naming so many models after animals, that will not forestall the mass extinction our cultural genome appears to be hurtling us toward. Genre Spoken Poetry
