Staceyann Chin

Vermont, Boston...

...Redbank

the cities pass through my body
cartilage
tendon
bone

breath pushing words like shooting stars
and the poems
present whole galaxies

the universe is a long sigh
and I can only sing

small tunes
large instruments tire with improper use

so I try hard
to play these strings with grace

pluck the plenty
and ingest the full

carefully

I am green shirt
soft like the way I want my own cheek to rub
yours

grandmothers

women are so soft when they are breathing

kiss me
and I will always place my mouth against your ear

listen to what you hear
always

I am hungry for the road stretching
always
I struggle with these muscles

moving against will
and it is only desire that keeps me turning

one leg after the other

I dance and read poems

and make metaphors in my journal
and I am so twisted in the long narrative

of me
and these hands
and what we will or will not do

Today I was mostly silent. Slept a little and ate less. Today I am tired. Today I will pull myself up by ribbons I remember from girlhood. Today I will say words I wrote to people I do not know. Today I am grateful to be alive. Today I wish I could be alone for

48 hours

today. I will think. of tomorrow. and dream of next week. Tonight. I will make a fantasy of my own webbed feet. I will grow. speak.

fuck myself

into believing. Today I will not lie. I today. I will create truth. make the wall disappear. today.

I am my own best thing.

today
I will lick the backs of my own ankle
and revel in the dust of my own journey

toward self

knowing

today
I will hold my older cunt up for victory
make my own coming

the skeleton
of a becoming history

In love,
Staceyann

Posted by staceyann at October 14, 2004 06:00 PM