Text
“It’s only after you notice an ache that you realize, it must have always been there” ~ Jane Hirschfield
when your lungs are stuck
on the rungs of your ribs
keep trying to exhale
your breath caught like
a needle repeating
black vinyl memory,
a fish suffocating in air,
one desperate eye staring in the only direction it can see,
your spectacular body flailing, your shimmering tale,
you curl and uncurl, wave, billow, whip yourself
snap in the wet air like thick red and white
stripes above a silent blue
filled with stars
for two years
needle drop memories
dance shadows
into your squint
It’s so troubling that people don’t seem to
recognize-- darkness is where the light is
The needle drops on the record, my Close and Play memory
Our bedtime story, Dumbo
catches in the scratches I didn’t know were there
A Hottentot caged, a 3-ring spectacle, an elephant
“Baby mine, don’t you cry, baby mine, close your eyes”
her soft voice sings through black vinyl skin into our bedtime air
sings to my sister and I through the cage and stars of story time,
a hysterical pachyderm wraps
a lullaby around her stolen child