Saturday, September 25, 2010

immortalized... on thin air

Lovers by E. Thor Carlson

in the beginning…
there is a rolling fog

or perhaps
it is a hovering mist

and he will fade
vanish
and be gone
and then…
there are the shadows of night

and he will be
darkly dressed
evading recognition
and as her eyes are distracted

by shooting stars
he will merge with restless shadows

and he will fade
vanish
and be gone
and she will know

the vacuum of emptiness
each moment
more bottomless than the last
while there is nothing to dam
the surge of her sorrow
and this pain probes
like a thin cold wire
so her heart shouts out
a cry of anguish
into the silent space
once inhabited by
his voice

her cry
striking a distant chord

that echoes
to fill the enveloping void
and on our doorstep lie my tears
and to our ceiling cling my sighs
and something fragile enters her soul
and she hears his footsteps
indistinct
in the chill air of dawn
but i feel i am watering tin flowers
and she utters a cry so dejected
it jerks her from her sleep

and i find you warm beside me
your secret fingers
inside my secret lips
and no breath parts us
and they shine and shimmer
while their tongues hammer
mad ecstasies
and ancient lullabies
and outside
the sea descends
from a sidewise sky
and we sink
into the wetness of its tears
that delicately necklace
about a universe morning-gowned
in glimmering amethyst and pearl
and you are thought
and you are quill
and you are ink
and i am your words
immortalized...
on thin air

Monday, September 20, 2010

The Last Days of Summer

Autumn by Carol Baumrucker

For a few more days, the bumble of bees will
flavor the air and strike our eyes with a certain
voluptuous éclat. How brief are these last days
of summer! Our summer lasted but hours,
one hundred glorious bloomings ousted by
one hundred ignoble demises.

We recited poetry from palates dense with
warm luxury and the blood of Aestes bled
over the edges of our skin. We carved a path 
in a magical forest of rocks and boulders, and
our bodies were sprinkled with diamond dust.
You told me, Listen.

I filled my ears with broken pebbles amongst
patches of sun, while the insects sang their
last falsettos. But I had no moments of sudden,
solemn shudderings… only the dissonance of
the coming loss of light. Yet, this is not a sad
lament. Tomorrow is a brand new day.

Tomorrow, our forest of rocks and boulders
will crumble and tumble and the trees will
quiver and the rain will crash and the forest
floor will be carpeted with wet golden leaves
shaped like suns and moons and stars and
the sea of it all will part for our crossing.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Three Miracles at Twilight

Dawn Chorus by Elizabeth Carolan

Watching one thousand swallows
And one
Glide
In an ellipsis of vibrating heaven,

Pausing by a shimmering tree
And another
Alchemizing
Birds into trembling leaves,

Hearing the galactic hum
And drum
Drone
The transparent cosmic spirit,

I became still. silent. sacred.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

that intimacy

Hole No. 2 by Emily Eveleth


how does the question go when you ask it of yourself? what if i am not who i think i am? what if, without my knowing it, i am another? somebody dark? and bad? followed by the crushing understanding that, because you were creepy enough to even think these thoughts, you are already dark. and bad. i didn’t want to ask. i didn’t want to think about it. but you can’t undo a thought that happened inside your head. it already happened. and you are already damned. completely. utterly. in your head. in your gut. in your heart.

a moment: i am standing in front of a sheet of glass with a sheet of silver paper on its back. and i am afraid. of who? of the person that is not a person. of the human that is not human. such malheur… that i do not recognize myself. you do not recognize me, either. you can see the obliviousness in my face that is not a face that is looking at you from across the sheet of glass with a sheet of silver paper on its back so for me there is no plunging inside and trying to find an alternate reality because even if i crash the glass once i hit that silver paper i am stuck. and i. am. damned.

we become friends. through this glass window with a sheet of silver paper on its back. for days, we look at each other. size one another up. from different angles. perspectives. with the usual trepidation. and venom. and angst. you invite me over. i invite you over. a simple hand gesture. no words necessary. we know each other too well.

a memory: there was a day. i was walking around. looked to the side. over my shoulder. and someone looked back. but i didn’t stop. i kept walking, and – oh! – who was that? who was that looking at me with as much curiosity as only i have for myself? and that was when i realized it was me. it lasted a split moment… this obliviousness to myself… this lack of recognition. i had to think before i understood. before i realized. and i said to myself, i shouldn’t be looking at myself. and you said, because that is how you become dark.

you try to disengage yourself. from the image. from the darkness that lies inside it… behind it… beyond it. the silver paper is only silver on the side facing you. but it is black on the other side… where you don’t look. it’s like a scary dream where the walls are fluid and the floors are hilly and there are no holes or vents anywhere and you want to breathe but can’t and you want to scream but your lips are sewn together and you try to decipher but there is a coating of glue over your eyes and there is a shadow that you cannot see and a voice that you cannot hear and both of them are in your gut and are screaming run! and you know that that would be futile because there. are. no. outs.

you see yourself. and you don’t know. that you know. it’s you.

i make a game of it. i stand to the side of the glass window. you stand to the side. i stretch out my hand. you stretch out your hand. i steal a glance from the front… then check the back. you ditto. what am i looking for? stop fucking with me. but i must look. there is nothing there. only the black back of the silver paper. i pull myself away. i forget this thing. or try to forget it. dismiss it as folly. and imagination. but it is quite the game, isn’t it? a very clever game… like a twisted arithmetic… and it is not to be dismissed. why don’t you play it, then? i say. you have a glass window, too. meet with your glass window. but these meetings are sudden encounters… where something happens… something you had not counted on. you see something. something you know you can’t unsee. you can’t undo a thought that happened inside your head, remember? no. you can’t. it is there. and if you tell yourself it isn’t, you have already started to lie.

i lie. and i am good at it. you don’t catch on. and you won’t. because just as realization is beginning to paint your eyes, my eyes trick with a look that will make you change your mind… SNAP! just like that. i play the innocent so well. don’t you know me, by now?

i remember everything. that is why i am bad. no. not because i remember. but because i pretend to forget. i tell myself i don’t believe what my eyes are telling me. but i live with the memory of what my eyes saw on the other side. what i saw when i said that there was nothing there. the memory: it crashes into me like a train… and smears bits of me everywhere… like stains.

but i forget one thing: that i lied. if you tell the same lie enough times, even you start to believe it.

i keep forgetting to shut the fuck up. i keep forgetting to swallow my words. but even when i think silently, i think with my lips open. and the words slip out… from inside my gut… and disappear in the air… but not before they have tainted me… stained me… and you… forever.

i don’t dare move. i don’t dare. if i move… i will thrash and kick and scream… like a crazed animal… like an infant who has been wronged but can’t express that anguish. if i thrash… i might come closer. and, then… you will come closer, too. we will be together in a unique way… a way that only you and i can be together. but. you know. there is no coming back from that intimacy.