Day 5: Confetti

i can tell you what happens when a foundation cracks

there is a stutter

every pillar shakes with the weight it must recover

for a moment

you may marvel at the strength of the rest of the body

the family 

for holding the assembly together

allowing the structure to stand

for a moment

but nothing will halt the crumble

the clatter

the crushing realization

that the holding together is over

and when it finally falls

when you finally let go

there will be a crash

a shouting of sorts

the final dust of what once was will fall over you like confetti 

and then there is only silence

a stillness completely foreign

it is a quiet that only the shattered can hold

it is a weight you can only feel once it has been lifted

and then you are alone

and there is no longer a panic of falling or breaking

no

only the fear that you will never hold anything together

ever

again

Day 4: The lonely

iʻve tried to find a way to make this cancer crumble
surround myself with beautiful people
sometimes
i cant help but second guess this skin
this smile
cant tell if its mine or
maybe i just borrowed it from a beautiful woman
the one with the eyes that grip
maybe ill have to give it back once sheʻs left

the answer to that last line is yes.

never mind the space i find in the absence of her laugh
something about the moving away
the bodies in retreat
i cant escape

iʻve tried to find a way to make this quiet speak
but no
its only me
and a pen that refused to dance across the page

i think i've lost the ability to properly reflect

and so instead,
i panic.

all i have are expectations
and a million voices in my head saying,
"are you sure you can do this"

Day 3: Distance

its okay to say

that this silence fills the room like tear gas

cuz when you’re gone

i can feel every bit of your absence

like a song i've forgotten
the tune of

Day 2: Easy.

Look at you

Pulling the fast girl out of me

Like it’s easy

I see

My body

Tangled in the dark of your eyes

But its only me

And your smile

Mumblings promises we wont keep

Watch our silence

Cast a constellation between us
Wait for its departure to fill your body with static

Let me drown myself in the wonder

Feel the skyline of your quiet pass

Go to sleep just to wake

Wanting more.

Day 1: The Hiapo await her siblings

When I awake

I am cold at the center

Some of my edges cool from the chill of the pacific

I feel a stillness settling in the water

I wonder how long I might be alone

Until I feel a quake

Something has changed

I am no longer the only infant to this ocean

ʻAʻole

There is a sister

Her head turned away

I see only the bridge of her back

I cry out to her

Hoping to carry her name on my lips

Hoping to bridge this blue between us

She does not move

All at once i remember the calm

silence before her

how this silence is not the same

see her make it lonelier

another shake cracks at the base of my chest

he is long

his red edges bleeding into the sea

I worry for the dark ring around him

Wonder how our mother continues without notice

1, 2, 3, and then more are born

but they all stay silent

the ocean calms

and I am alone

learning the depth of pō

Jamaica Osorio

Love and the Storm

Love before the storm

it is quiet
everything so beautiful
even her scowl
seems to turn you
over
she the rock
you cant help but wave yourself back to
over
ever breath she takes
turns you
inward
you silk cocoon
she blessed you
made you so small
all hers
you
so honored to oblige


Love after she shatters 

a room lined with cracked rain boots
water wont stop falling
she a straight spine
in your direction
your call a surrender
treason against the quiet
where the fuck did your body go
and your mind
and the silent pieces of night
you once carried as a shield
where the fuck is the love
you said shes build you a home with

how the fuck am i supposed to build another home without walls
when she proved physics dont bow down to love
the way you loved to
for her

5 memories i wish werent mine

5 memories i wish werent mine

1.
you are a yellow faced dandelion
a cracked stem with no tomorrow
you are a sour excuse of a life fated away
i am m too caught in my own curly haried youth
to notice a last moment before its gone

i am the corner of the room
sterile and still
you are the sight of a soul leveled and leaving
i am a every mistake i ever made
every time there wasnt enough attention paid
you are 7 or 8
and gone. a child frozen without a future
and i am still alive
crying
because i say you leave but didnt see you go

2.
i only imagined the fire from the ruble
my own piece of the story
i didnt feel the heat
but know the way it would crackle a foundation

i am a sister to a 5 years old with a best friend in heaven
how the fuck do you explain that?

3.
every time i think you might stay
every morning you promised u had changed
every time i realized you were exactly the same

4.
there is no time that lost love can erase

5.
boys with morals
and best friends with no respect
a handle of vodka and no one to share it with
drive drive beautiful
drive yourself into night
cover you body with the sheet of his skin
build a home in his body with your lips
drive, drive beautiful
dont mind me
ill talk to you,
in the morning

Newton's Law

on the morning you wake up

to find

your flesh separating from the bone

and the sun whispering through the curtains of your eyelids

peel yourself from the skin of your couch

pull your breath from the rest it requests

find the pride you left yourself in the corners

do not wait for the walls to blink you through

when the window in your heart has finally closed

and love is so lost

there is no wind left

the civil war in your blood has paused

move yourself away for the still of your home

somewhere to teach you to recognize movement

again

so the next time someone leaves you

you know it in her shaking

rather than through all the shattering space you find in her departure

When the thunder begins

Dance your way back to the sea

Surrender the weight of your casing to the ocean

remember what it is like to be held by something that breathes

call out her name

over

as the tide falls through you

until you can imagine the scent of her return

wish her image into the rip of the sea at your ankles

remember the peace of her pull at your hips

the wet of her kiss

cover your body with the memory of her grasp

forget the girl you were in new york city

and the turmoil she gave you

forget the way you tumbled yourself

crossing the continent to catch her breath

forget the wind trying to push itself through your heart

keep the glass pain shut

locked

forget the crackle call of closure

crawl yourself

back to your center of the world

move your body

do not be still

do not be left behind

again

do not forget to look for the shake of departure in her eyes

the quiet quiver of a drunken mistakes disguise

dance all the move back into your body

until all earth is just a still marble trying to hold you

conquer the weight of gravity

remember the way it once made you so still you forgot you were alive

remember the morning you woke up without your skin

how you had to find pieces of yourself in the memory of mistakes

and all the love you left unmade

remember what happens to a set of bones that fails to stay in motion

and a that woman who gives herself to a closed window

is never more than a whisper condensating on a glass pain

she will always fade

not even her breath will remember her name

Day 6: After Consider the Hand, by Aziza Barnes

After Consider the Hand, by Aziza Barnes

Consider a world without mirrors

The loss of a loved one,

Ego

Consider the lonesome

The silence

Consider the lack of reflection

Consider the body

Pacing

Consider the way the space makes you bresthless

Presses agaisnt the chest

Like the hallow end of a promise

like the barrel of a shotgun

Now consider the heart

Its cored out cavaty

Consider the way it must change

How it resists the expectations of life

Consider what it learns to hold

And whether its in your best interest

Consider the hole filled

Left by the ego

Now consider the ocean

The way it clings to the curves of body

Consider the way it pushes a smile to the surface

Consider the scent it leaves on the skin

Consider the reflection

The day self is refound

Without that dear friend,
ego

Consider the lack of limits

A horizon with no end

Consider the ones who tried to throw themselves over an edge that didnt exist

Consider the wave that brought them back

Consider the girl standing on the shore alone

Waiting for the right lights to appear

To gloss over the water

To show her face

An image she had forgotten

It seems so strange

To be ones only true friend

Consider the next step.

Day 5: listen

how it is that i have nothing to say
that iʻve become so accustomed to you reading poems from my silent lips
let you pull the songs out of me
like i need you as my gravity
what have you done to turn my body quiet
make me wanna sit and listen to the world spin
make me wanna save the senses for the sight of you
the scent of your breath

what have you done to me
to make speaking scary
that my only desire left
is to sit
in silence
with your body pressed against my chest
and listen

Day 4: pay attention

I will write a thousand poems for your breath against my chest
None of them will capture
The way my heart lifts itself presses past the diaphragm
Tells me to slow down
Pay attention



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