Mock Beagle Hunt

Artist Statement

In New York I was not seeking to become a pet parent but Atom the beagle found me and taught me the finer tenants of interspecies love. When the human romance that brought him into my life dissolved, Atom also left. When I play this video my current beagle Cesar goes nuts because they were brothers for eight months. The scene is my backyard in Detroit where I would grow vegetables and do a bad job at landscaping. We moved to Detroit so I could fill a position as a technical writer for a renewable energy company. When Atom was brought to Astoria Queens New York from Quartz Hill California he chewed up the vintage hats that were going to be the uniform of my newfound life, as I was chasing him around the house infuriated, I had a drastic personality change realizing the absurdity of taking an animal's behavior personally. I also felt that the dog was teaching me in companion to my undergraduate studies. How could I have the most meaningful relationship of my life with a creature with no grasp of meaning. This poem was recently reprinted in Zoetic Press's Heathen Tide Orphans (2024). The video was shot on an iphone4. 

Karol Olesiak is a queer disabled poet, writer, and activist. Karol’s poetic work in Rogue Agent Journal, Neologism Poetry, MAI Feminism, Laurel Review, Zoetic, Lone Mountain Literary, Fifth Wheel Press, and Pictura Journal. Karol’s poetry collection Cold War Kids, coauthored by Jakub Olesiak, is published through Barnes & Noble Press. Karol is a Wheeler Prize semifinalist, a Saturnalia Books semifinalist, a Moonstone Chapbook finalist, a Pushcart Prize nominee, and has an MFA from University of San Francisco. KarolOlesiak.com