coping mechanism and How will you begin?
Patrycja Humienikcoping mechanism
How will you begin?
gripping the silken
machinery of language. assemblage of
fictions. how they make shelter. construct
sky almost-violet. vibrant only at the edges.
if you could see the edge. you would climb there.
i nearly did myself. having wanted to erase
shitty memories. so wanting ravages me. see
how wretched wanting can be.
the storm seizing cars, entire houses, ancient trees
from the puckering earth. what does it say about me
that i can picture myself there, held by air, watching.
machinery of language. assemblage of
fictions. how they make shelter. construct
sky almost-violet. vibrant only at the edges.
if you could see the edge. you would climb there.
i nearly did myself. having wanted to erase
shitty memories. so wanting ravages me. see
how wretched wanting can be.
the storm seizing cars, entire houses, ancient trees
from the puckering earth. what does it say about me
that i can picture myself there, held by air, watching.
How will you begin?
Left foot into the stirrup, swing my right leg over
Larkspur, jonquil, rhododendron
Sing the second song that comes to mind; slip the first into memory’s crater
Beeswax & myrrh
Demand the fog tell how
Feel myself a stone at the bottom of a well—no, the sea
Rinse
It has to do with extremities
Don’t mention nightmares
Throw open the curtains the way my mother did, perhaps her mother & her mother before
Go to the lake
Arrange the fragments in something like a vase
Believing
Larkspur, jonquil, rhododendron
Sing the second song that comes to mind; slip the first into memory’s crater
Beeswax & myrrh
Demand the fog tell how
Feel myself a stone at the bottom of a well—no, the sea
Rinse
It has to do with extremities
Don’t mention nightmares
Throw open the curtains the way my mother did, perhaps her mother & her mother before
Go to the lake
Arrange the fragments in something like a vase
Believing
Patrycja Humienik is a Polish-American writer and movement artist based in Seattle, WA. Her poetry is featured/forthcoming in Passages North, Four Way Review, Hobart, The Boiler, The Shallow Ends, and Sporklet, among others. She serves as assistant poetry editor for Newfound and events director for The Seventh Wave. Find Patrycja on twitter @jej_sen.
Originally published in Moss: Volume Six.
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