Teesta Review: A Journal of Poetry, Volume 2, Number 2. November 2019. ISSN: 2581-7094
Borrowed Wildfire
Smoke
borrowed
Thunder
Mockingbirds
Screaming
microwave alarms and
Next
door the
Unregulated
metronome of
Draining
water in a
PVC
pipe this silk the
Color
of bruised berries this
Forest
green the variegated
Grey
of cloud cover still isn't a
Ceremonial
dress and the
Skyshard
off to the east so
Like
something I have found on the
Beach
a blue that clots in my
Throat
the clear red of
Warning
lights and
Supermarket
signs today I
Want
to sing a song of
Remembering
my real name a
Song
that doesn’t jump at thunder of
Fire
quenched in water or
Fire
that
Knows
not to take houses
Houses
that
Must
continue to stand
We wanted Catfish and Wild Garlic
Together
in silence a
Cottonmouth
Ripples
across the
Cave-in
pond who knows
What
noun will hit on the
Bait
a
Modified
verb grabbed clean
From
a nearby leaf and the
Locusts
sing our
Deep
hopes back to us
Unrecognizable
we wanted so
Little
so little we
Wanted
catfish and
Wild
garlic wanted to
Feed
these mad and
Beating
creation songs near the
Rivers
eye a
Place
between worlds right down
Near
the front of the stage
More River Song
I
grew up watching you
Dance
the river
Give
your precise self the one not
Touched
by your misunderstood
Disease
and the
Voice
that you learned there and I my
Crayons
and paper a
Storm
pulling me to the river too and those old
Mountain
spirits and underground
Beings
guardians of roots and
Uncut
stone I
Grew
watching you
Letting
the river take everything from the
Center
outward with that
Lessoned
voice and your need for things that are
Poison
to you and we can say that you
Rode
out your own need for the invented dark
Became
your own cure your
Disease
and send your best self
Into
the river I have
Stood
bare to my thighs in that water and with my
Very own voice we sing together