Poetry
Erie
This was not the first time
I had seen water burn
Oil rigs oozed out their unctuous virtues
Sumptuous smoke rose from the lake’s mottled surface
And again
Just the other day
A whirlpool of fire
Formed Earth’s funeral pyre
Out of this portrait burst a vengeful spirit
Born from the salt of the sea
Wiry gold branches clung to her breasts
As if her lungs were the veins of the trees
Her voice pierced the night
Icy flutes shrieked her message
“Sparrows cannot sing while I burn,” she claimed
“Do not abandon me to die here in vain”
We came together in mourning
As mothers, as sisters, as lovers
The sky a cold black
Her skirts now a burnt orange
By midnight the beach was bursting with life
Women singing and dancing and intricately clapping
Holy trumpeters declared this our final plea
As we guided our mother back into the sea
At sunrise the birds still sang as before
Twittering sparrows filled the corners of my dreams
I gazed out past the shore as the morning mists faded
Or was it more smoke, not yet dissipated?
Weeping, I screamed “we must find a way back”
My fingers, charred and black, were burnt down to the bone
We stand here together—balanced, poised, exhausted and exposed
Clinging to the only edge we ever have known
Commissioned for the 2021 RCS Etch Festival
Major Arcana
I could spend all day staring at the stars
Wondering if the tower is upside down
or right side up
Wondering if my future is turned up first
or flipped over last
Wondering if you will give me an answer
I could spend all day staring at the stars
Feeling the beads of neon spray paint
dripping down my arms
Feeling the juice of ripe summer peaches
sticking between my fingers
Feeling in a space where I’m no longer along
I could spend all day staring at the stars
Glazing my eyes
until there’s sparks round the corners
Phasing my blood
until the tides run her dry
Tracing a line between me and you
I could spend all day staring at the stars
Wanting to crawl across this barroom floor
Wanting to climb inside of your sound
Wanting to break my own silence
I could spend all day staring at the stars
I could spend all day dreaming of what it means to be alive
I could spend all day being
Without a second of it spent living
Published in Poetry Undressed's December 2021 Magazine
What Comes Through in Silence
I swim in the blue
A dive within
A dip below
A shiver through skin
Like a girl on the prow
I nest in the green
A thunder beneath
A heaven above
A sigh of relief
Soft, like the wings of a dove
I burn through the red
Whose snapping insides
Burst a crackle throughout
Hold on for the ride
It’s too dangerous to doubt
Let me sleep drenched in black
Tucked in the fragments of yesterday’s clouds
Night’s sheltering storm
Gives way to a gold
Bright trembling morn
Published online by Poetry Undressed October 2021