Before Renee Good became the center of a tragic news story, she was a writer.
She won an Academy of American Poets Prize in 2020, for her poem, On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs.
The poem is wry and funny as she tries to reconcile science and faith and wonders, "Can I let them both be?"
To read it now, you might hear the person remembered tenderly this week as a loving mother and supportive partner, as politicians and online commentators scrutinize the shaky cell phone footage of her final moments.
On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs
i want back my rocking chairs,
solipsist sunsets,
& coastal jungle sounds that are tercets from cicadas and pentameter from the hairy legs of cockroaches.
The full poem is available from the Academy of American Poets and can be read here.
Renee Good was shot and killed this week by a federal immigration officer. She was 37 years old. She leaves behind three children and her wife, who told Minnesota Public Radio that she was "made of sunshine."
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