The Animal Issue

Welcome to the Animal issue of CV2! Whether fuzzy or feathery, squishy or slimy,
microfauna or megafauna, I fucking love animals! So, when the lovely folks at CV2
approached me about editing an issue I only had one idea rattling around in my
brain. Amidst the world in constant and continuing crisis I wanted to read poems
that were, hopefully, fun and feisty, but also that might allow us to look at some-
thing outside ourselves.

The poems in this issue all have an undeniable energy, some like a puppy with the
zoomies, some like a lumbering bear emerging from hibernation and others like a
songbird flying to the perfect perch. The wildness of our human bodies and emotions
are present in the poems from MA|DE. There are poems featuring pigs from Rob
Taylor and Laura Farina and Colleen Baran. David Ly brings us more cephalopods
(thank God!), Kayla Czaga goes deep with fish, and Simon Brown pays tribute to
invertebrates in their series SONGS OF NO SPINE.

To every eight-year-old who was obsessed with horses or kittens or bunnies or
horses being ridden by kittens and bunnies. To those who have loved and lost pets.
For those of us who obsess over our favourite animals, but also over the dwindling
and damaged habitats of those animals. This issue is for you.
And I must give credit where it’s due, which is to everyone for not pandering to my
interests. There is not a single poem centering otters in this issue.

I fuckin’ love animals and I fuckin’ love these poems and I hope you also do, be-
cause I picked them, okay?

Dina Del Bucchia
Guest Editor