Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments (Milkweed, 2020), an illustrated collection of nature essays, chosen as Barnes and Noble’s Book of the Year. In addition, she has published four poetry collections, including Oceanic and Lucky Fish, as well as a chapbook of epistolary garden poems, Lace & Pyrite, which she cowrote with Ross Gay. She is a professor of English and creative writing in the University of Mississippi’s MFA program.


Photograph by Caroline Beffa.

Five Poems

by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Fortune-Telling Parrot

Idukki, India

I will pick
a black card

of luck for you:
star, pinkmoon,

mirror, ostrich eye,
and jasmine bloom.

You may want
to ring my neck

People on couch
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