Body of Render. Felicia Zamora

      Back to quiet

      & the blades of grass prepare for dormant; think think in stillness, under winter’s palm in swift approach; desire now this return to dust, this work beyond autumnal brain, autumnal body; how we plot our birth & death among cycles of seasons, ignoring, at times, dusks & dawns in hurry, in hurry; oh the yawn of us; how we tire of tunnels, pupil’s capture of the backs of our own hands; all these keyboard strokes; how we ache in our hippocampi; we sift memory in gather, in gentle care, to mind the incessant pull back to elements, back to quiet.

      In the name of freedom (an election thought)

      What meaning lost in the name of; think crusades; what you know of good intentions; when last you brother; when last you sister; how social media invents: a therapy gap to consider less & speak more; when did we become definitive statements behind cyber cyber-degradations; say this lack of, oh empathy oh; how we stay at wrist-lengths from society, our keyboard cage; such less we we, more my my; how disconnection: a sickness we cure with more sickness, more declarations behind closed minds; elections reveal one of our faces—we a nation of; marvelous colors, creeds, identities, ideas; how we in terrifying action to each other; & how the first woman, say president, say qualified, say what lovely reality, must be candidate to: say sexual predator, say a joke’s sad fruition; what cruel reality this historical privilege, this thumb pressed upon you & you &; how some close their eyes; how you will weep, in one way or another.

      & in burn you also

      The cattails golden in the afternoon’s low sun; smell of dried sap releases in each crunch under step; here the trees & ground prepare; say, smoke of what burns; how we all carry on wind in our delicate, our smallness; one must completely disintegrate before; think phoenix; & you so close to combustion—you long for anything resembling flame; this dirt path, travelers before you; how we bind to each precipice before us; your hand in lover’s hand; how in one moment: a guide, how other: lost, so lost & smoke of the burning fills you.