GLOW STICK ❋ Ivanna Baranova

This work comes from the collection Confirmation Bias, which was shortlisted for The Metatron Prize for Rising Authors. You can order the published collection here.

somewhere in me
exists
a so-called
original urge
to align
with the astral
body
but then
i see
all planetary
anatomy
aspiring
to life eternal
among
The Galaxies
regardless
home to u-turns
cultural autopsies
and finite
emancipations
of this social
imaginary
but baby
if not
hopeful
then really
what
should i be?
notice
to eclipse
green lights
in these americas
i will
have to
learn to run―
what else
should i think
about motion?
your face comes
to memory
like a slow
collision
thus the traffic
of desire
awake again
in its daily
insurrection
yesterday
i felt free
in a way
i could not
explain
then today
my thoughts
exhaust
their own
resolve
ask
are my feet
planted firmly
to the―
why is the ground
against
my―
where are my feet
in relation
to the―
what is the cause
of this
flick flick
flickering?
another day
and closer yet
to the final click
of the proverbial
dimming glow stick
such that
in the mourning
stardust blooms
my not my guatemalan
apogees
and the hours
just go on
flowering
hello
relentless garden
standing
in my heart’s
early window
watch with me
the sun
beam down
in the same
direction
it burns
what else
is there to do
but witness
this world’s
precarious
devotion?
funny
it’s not
always the eye
that’s black
but rather
the rings
that surround
the iris
refracting
and refracting
the glimmer
of this endless
body phenomena
frenetic as love’s
epiphanic
little motions