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crickets + calla lilies

Val Esway + Maw Shein Win 

 

#1

 

 

could hear the crickets through the phone line

& feel the pavement inside the bones

 

 

could see the outlines of clouds

as I slept on the plane, no rain

 

 

worrying winds picked up pace &

I closed my eyes & hoped for grace

 

 

a slice of light through the pane

opened a box on my lap

 

 

I didn’t want to know what would be revealed

so I slammed it closed &  pulled the shade

 

 

tea kettle whistle in the dim kitchen

I lit a honeycomb candle

 

 

slivers of silver crackling & whipping

around the edges of my eyelids

 

 

lashes flashing in the dark

morning bed

 

 

christmas morning fog, bad music

dog curled up on couch while washing machine spins

 

 

sound of bells on the collar, a spinning

sensation already

 

 

sinking into the unknown,

welcoming it like a treasured friend

 

 

holding a note in my head

that I remember & then I don’t

 

 

it floats around the edges

ebbing & flowing 

 

 

around a bend

I touch the bark’s surface

 

 

watching a paper cup

dance down the street

 

 

spin in the ether

a message reveals

 

 

something familiar 

like a fragment of a dream

 

 

wondering if I’m 

in between bed & sky

 

 

savoring the sensation

suspension, surrender, sublime

 

 

I slip between cloud

sheets, sleep for a while

 

 

thirty seconds or seven hours

surfing in time, space

 

 

& dream, I imagine

another possibility

 

 

& wake, see the world

w/  new eyes, rise & march onward

 

 

rain on our skin

we walk to the light

 

 

dazzled by the possibilities

a long path of open doors

 

 

that lead to more

doors, we hold out our hands

 

 

& catch the sparkles

raining down like candy 

 

 

I wake from a dream

sleep talking at night

 

 

trying to grasp

the detritus of other worlds

 

 

in a liminal space

together we dream                                           

 

 

we are flying 

above stars

 

 

& under the milky way

held by silence

 

 

we become the light

we have always been

 

 

a total solar eclipse

we look up

 

 

 

 

#2

 

 

coffee mug, calla lilies, pepper shaker

dining room table is a desk

it’s where I begin

 

 

fan blades spinning

plucking guitar strings

ice cubes clinking in a glass

 

 

listening to old songs

that make me cry

another glass of wine

 

 

another headline

same as yesterday

time to smash things

 

against the white walls

men w/ their pens

and their guns

 

 

an old & tired story

rinse & repeat

this chorus is boring

 

 

let’s change this

up, find another

song before too long

 

 

move our bodies

in the garden planting seeds

dancing to bowie

 

 

dancing to bauhaus

watering succulents

on the balcony

 

 

popping dark chocolate

peanut butter cups

an antidote to today’s ails 

 

 

soaking in tub

lavender bath salts

eyes closed

 

 

shut out the noise

focus on breath

there is only this moment

 

 

together across

tabletop, sparrows on

lawn, birch tree still there

 

 

leathery skin

a bit worse for wear

we are still here

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