Every atom of this
was made in the
nuclear burn of
the first stars.
A handful of dried mushrooms
Moss
Leaves bent at every angle
a tree soaked in starlight
Bending, bending, bending, to the
will of its water
The earth tending to itself,
and us, and the whale calf being carried on its mother’s fin
Floating, floating, floating
In the heat of those early star furnaces
My atoms flow and burn into
each other, fusing
molecules, until I am
born, remade, grown into
planets. I have my own
axis, my own gravity,
companion stars, a comet encircled on
my head like a crown
Ground spices in soup
acid and fat
A green burst of something
finite, a leaving off,
a launch.
I can taste it, creation.
I can bring it into me.
Yes, and yes, and yes
It is all here, it is all
I need. You and you
and the turtle crossing the
road. Hill fog, dense with
traveling water molecules
spread through treetops.
They are here, the loved ones
Nothing is ever gone.
Nothing fought for is ever
lost. History will
register your discontent
as an odd-shaped
brick that changed the
warp and weft of the whole wall.
There is a tunnel here
that needs knowing.
Walk through. You will
find carved light,
pictographs of an ancient
hand. They left it here for you.
I receive and You receive.
Unfurl and unfold
into bloom spaces,
and scant spaces
until you are heat and
fury and sadness and
gratitude, again and again
Again and again
There and there and there
We are heat born,
sap suckled,
and in flight.
I rise, I rise, I rise
ABOUT:
Priya is a cottage witch living with her cat and a hundred plants deep in the forests of upstate New York. Born in India but raised in Nebraska, she is aggressively Midwestern. She works as an Assistant Professor of Writing at Ithaca College as her day job. You can follow her on Insta @Priya_Sirohi and on Twitter @DrPriyaSirohi.
Tip her at Ko-fi.com/masalazine.
EDITOR'S SONG PAIRING: Kalondoly - Rising Sun
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