Aerobic brain
Silencing glare from the moon
Staring deep into my cosmic mind
Shattering the crystal net
between me and the endless sea of darkness
Illuminated by bright lights
Metal skyships flying overhead
One can feel the night
bend with the astral sky
Bringing to earth
A light only the heavens can reach
With these bare hands
I take a chunk
for the next time I visit
dead on arrival.
i know there’s not much to a box of used crayons
when labor day gives them away,
but do you remember the oiled pigment
staining your fingernails, staining your shoes
when they ground beneath the carpet and the soles?
do you remember your smile, your squint, your childish
determination and pride? you scribbled the world at
dusk and i asked why we still watch sunsets if
we know how they end.
and did you hear the music threading through
lawn mowers and storms last night, did you dance with me?
i should’ve guessed that the stars preferred
the sun to the moon (like calls to like), but maybe
they needed a silent love. still, your heart
beats like cicadas’ wings and i thought it would
keep me awake forever (and i thought for once
that would be alright).
and we never did get to play chess
but i’ve still got you in check;
it’s your move.
humans
we
are humans.
created/tossed/turned/thrust
into a world we must learn to call our own.
welcome to planet earth,
land slowly, the ground is still hard, and
look at the wonders creation has graced you with.
arms. legs. hearts.
look how you
are the only one here--but don’t the stars and the moon and the
animals surround you? you learn so quick to question the world, in awe of your own voice,
but when you wait for a response
it is still.
you are all alone.
human.
your hand unclenches like the guttural roar of a lion letting loose one thousand
hours away, you reach up
and let the light come to you, warm/soft/snow that envelops and
burns and freezes all at once, and you stare.
little light, are you just like me?
you get no response.
all the sudden the light seems heavy and you look through two holes
conveniently placed on your face
and you’re watching yourself on a blue and green spherical home with population, there is space
but why can you not find anyone to fill it, oh, little light,
you will never be like me.
never will you watch the sky and dream of the feeling of seeing again
your best friend,
never will you remember warm breath on your neck, a new creation.
(you haven’t seen your co-artist in so long)
never will you stand on the edge of the water, alone,
dip your feet into the sand and there is so much
humans
take for granted, little light...
have you ever made anyone smile?
have you ever stood in front of your art teacher, watch her beam
like the sun at the world you’ve created in a canvas, do you even understand
what art is?
of course you don’t, but it’s more comforting to think
you hear what i’m saying, less awkward to take note of how we are the only species on earth
who can do so much--why us?
why human?
i could have been born a cat, slinking
as my only skill to show off my sass, proving
i still have it,
cats are very broken indeed, slink away.
humans are very broken indeed, cracked and weighed down by the light
that will never be human, let it go, let it fly back
into the sky
and as it shines down on your
new identity in the dark, this you know:
humans
will never be light.