i do not really think/ no/ the words seep/
from my hands/ the way ink falls/
and surfs from pen to pad/ the mind an iceberg/ thawing/
under blazing small eternities//
ocean vuong likens speaking to leaving
his shoes at the door/ to enter/ a place with care/
i take mine off/
before writing/ i dance/
barefoot/ and feel the world’s soft tendrils//
i come to a page/ a mess/irrevocably/
honest/ kneaded/ wanting to be knead/
stripped raw to the bone/
heart holding the cleaver//
my fingers know/ to write/
is to treat beginnings/
as if we are still in one room/
you reading/ a poem/
me writing it/ us inhaling//
lungfuls of each other’s soothing silences/
then gasping/
in rapture/
that’s how writing should feel like//
This was first published in The Alien Buddha’s The Buddha Gets Rejected 2 print anthology on February 14, 2023. You can purchase a copy here.
