heart song

 

I will shut my eyes

I will find you

here underneath the pain

inside this museum of endless

heartbeats, pulsing blood

walls where we leak

out our hunger, freely

on the pervious skin of

soiled existence

 

I will find you

buried in these mortal

effigies, gray with

entropy and vine

we crack under this

impossible architecture

hope, the lone graffiti

easily washed

 

let’s flower scarlet here

we’ll ornament death

bloom decay

a wounded sanctuary, down

lattices of wormwoods

pain is an art—

we are the galleries

 

at night, we lie awake as cacti

leafless and spineless

admiring our jagged swords

our shallow roots soaked in dying,

like lovers we scavenge for

remnant grief

as we sip tears at sunset,

hum lost tribal songs

at the first sight of dawn

---

© 2019 Tanya Rakh and Ndotono Waweru

Tanya Rakh is a poet and author residing in Madison, Wisconsin. Her verse has appeared in journals including Danse Macabre, Yes, Poetry, and Bywords. Ndotono Waweru is a poet and author based in Boston, Massachusetts. His poetry is frequently featured in the journal Spillwords and is published in anthologies including In the Crosshairs and A Promise of Doves. Both have poetry guest featured in the new collection Used Wings by Tissy Taylor. Together they explore and chart Alien words by the residual glow of dreams and blinding antigravity. They are currently working on their first book of duets.