Racing the tide

Racing the tide

By the second time, I retreat from the ocean's edge,
I already yearn to feel how the water light kisses
the back of my heels. With a gold scapular dangling on my neck
I surrender to this crystal baptism,
Immersive, unhurried, and continuous. Are we being
drowned to life or born to death?
Waves move in motions sweet enough to make desserts
and bring freshwater salmon to the ocean 'till spring.
Looking down at little rocks in a blanket of saltwater
They whisper "Blue changes you". Blue like the indigo
jacket I'm wearing, and the bus seats
Blue like the song the ocean makes when it leaves
me. So I breathe slowly into the ocean's arms.
Whatever mattered before, is not here with us
When cold washes through me. I let it
take me, over, dawn.

Sweet drops

Licking pineapple off the yellow sun. Annoyed at the grazing of my skin, at my eyes blinded by reflection, at the all-consuming heat star. I fight the summer solstice’s love language. I fight the seduction, the sunburnt cherry cheeks, and new beauty marks on my neck. Spring melted in sweat drops before my sadness could leave. I turn around to stare at what made me. A creation of mad. Ness, the daughter of magma. And me, the daughter. Seamlessly, irresponsibly, alone. I can see more clearly the modified heart-shaped candy inked upon my upper leg. Tiny letters in a sweetheart shine through sunscreen to reveal the truth. Of course, bite me’s changed to kiss me’s Of course, the sun is out on this reckless afternoon. Of course, I'll complain and then want it back.

Like two strangers on a plane

Listen. I’ll tell you a secret. I have never told anyone else, at least this year. Hear the moth flying, bouncing back and forth against the glass window? It’s not a coincidence. She wants to die. It’s a she. Last night she witnessed two secret lovers meeting for the first time. Blouse buttons popped, jeans to the ground, and a muffled confession: I am too drunk. A minute later, two tequila bloodstream lying in silence, and in peace, Lizzy, the moth, blended in the background. She saw them fall asleep next to each other, like strangers on a plane. Sleep hunts our inhibitions into a coma. Like strangers on a plane, bodies together, a tilting head until the crown falls on a shoulder and breaths sync into one big Lego sculpture. The morning after was a cocktail of a catatonic alarm, murmured French words, and sober kisses. The ones only strangers share after they’d slept together without fucking. Pure and desperate. It’s this cocktail that made Lizzy realize she would rather remember this moment as it is: lost in space and time.

Of England, I dream

You had to be there, in England
Bees become bohemian, in England

Below the roses, she looks for reasons
The mushrooms rise, no tinted seasons

Lovers find new love languages, while
She rebuilds herself in new cities; not England

yet. England, the gemstone of serenity
Jade green reserved for alternative futures

Waiting for the new autumn, a raindrop is suspended mid-air
Where’s she? Sometimes she’d just fall

Asleep. In love with people, she’s never met
Enchanted by dreamlike places she’s never been

Breathe in. And there you are: too much
loneliness comes from dreaming

What should I write about?

Talk about your messed-up sleeping schedule
The fireworks we saw last Saturday night
The Barbie Pink construction machine
A flamingo!
A metaphor for racism
Talk about how a baby dies each sunset
And a baby is born each sunrise
Talk about that
How about your dating app experience? oh, you don’t date?
Talk about that
The late ice cream runs when you run into friends who were talking about you
Talk about friends
How you heard somewhere that 20 seconds of bravery can change your life
Think about it. 20 seconds is only one sentence out loud
Say it, panic after
Talk to the smoothie guy for your roommate
Tell him a friend thinks he’s cute
I know you don’t even talk to people but oh the things you do for love
Talk about how she thinks reindeers and fireflies are not real. They can’t be.
Don’t you feel a little
Heartbroken?

Please write soon

I want you
to know
absence
not friendly, nor known,
but the aching
kind
comes from wonder
You are the wonder
of
millions
I wonder
how did we exist
in the same cities
for short periods
Without me
irrevocably
running into
you
and saying
something stupid
like
hi