Tag: poetry

From nothing

Cydney Marie Leave a comment

Joy is, in itself, a worthy cause

But even it needs to be created

We are told that our feelings are somehow superfluous

Not real

Yet they can be altered

Changed

By outside forces

You tell me that this strange spirit on the stage isn’t real

Yet I see

The body move, gesture

Breathe

And is something in me not changed in seeing it?

Bodies moving

With each other, and not

Gesture

Breath

Voice

Move into the light

And that’s already a change.

Move downstage

Change

Ensemble in formation

Grasp onto another

Change

Lament

The gaze moves

Change

Meet an audience member’s eyes

And they are changed

A tear

Change

A laugh

A moment to the next

Draw breath

Maybe the soul on the page has never lived

Or maybe they’ve lived and then moved on

But now they breathe again

Exhale

Once I was you

Someday you will be me.

Are you angry yet?

Sad?

Joyful?

Relieved?

Have you yet been changed?

You will be.

Step into the light

Draw breath

Fill the body

Wake up the spirits

Don’t tell me magick isn’t real

This space is charged with light

Buzzing

Every body overfilled with life

And you are a story made flesh

Move, speak your spells right now

There are even witnesses

Invite them in

Mistakes are easily forgiven

Only one thing really matters:

Conjure.

Capturing Campus: Sleep Paralysis

EKArts Leave a comment

Sleep Paralysis

Waking became worse than dreaming

of guilt and endless rooms

familiar and upside down

bottomless pits on the ceiling

falling upwards 

to breathe but not move

words like mercury in the throat

dispel panic through fluttering eyelids

know there is no sense in fighting

a prison of the mind

as limbs stiffen hard

at the sight

perched on the bed

with angel wings

borne of kerosene 

headlights for teeth

gnashing at the stillness

beneath tight sheets

A cherry pit soul

screams freedom

aSoSS 27 | Sidestep

a-spider-on-state-street Leave a comment

I don’t know where we’re going.

I don’t know either, but that’s why we can figure that out together!

RoosRoast, 1:00PM, 9/7/2024

i can see it in your smile, your hesitation, that your head weighs heavy by the burden of unremembered dreams. do you still dream? it’s a silly question, but your breathing slows. yes. don’t you? somewhere, a siren wails. i resist a glance. i hardly sleep! a deflection, but you don’t press it. both of us are suffering from a deprivation of intimacy, a betrayal of the conscience. i take your hand and we set off together, chained by sentiment, sentenced to walk the earth alone: one of us carrying a burned map, the other a broken compass.

No problem… don’t tell anyone this ended 18 minutes early and we can both get some work done, okay? Alright see you!

Traverwood Library, 1:12PM, 10/9/2024

time should be defined not by length but by density. with each rotation of the hand, a fresh layer of ink is superimposed on the brain–not erased, but written over; there is simply no space to contain our existence. the words form, stack, and topple. you are there but hidden, impossible to uncover. my tears fall alternatingly, like footsteps crushing fresh snow. the things i cry for, are they crying for me?

[grabbing a box of kombucha] you gotta promise me you’ll drink one every morning!

Costco, 4:00PM, 10/15/2024

breathe deep enough and you can feel your belly brush your spine. is your stomach touching your back? the government lacks a measure of hunger, perhaps because it makes fools of all of us: our stomachs, our eyes, our touch. food deserts parch urban jungles. apartments pop up like mushrooms after the rain, grayed and wilted, porous, vacant. you stand up–the sand will swallow us and make soil from our bones–and walk away. the ache inverts my ribcage and gnaws at my tongue.

up above, the vultures wait their turn.

~Sappy Daze~ Day 2

Sappy 1 Comment 
we are rotting but instead let's say we are aging 
like fine wine because the expense of time is what 
makes us expensive and the cost of suffering can’t 
ripe faster than insufferable expectations and if we 
want a delectable cheese it’s desperation to bear the 
fruits of indefinite rotting that we continue to do so

- sappy

Capturing Campus: Reclamation

EKArts Leave a comment

TW: Gore, canibalistic imagery, mentions of violence

Reclamation 

a crack of the skull to let the demons out

sharp daggers to the chest

pouring love; painting a sygil 

violence on grass blades and mushroom tops

too dizzy to lift a hand

skin marred and beautiful, bloody even

nibbled by canines and premonition

bit down on finger bones

gritty and callous resistance 

chewed the marrow like tobacco

spit it out, too

onto cold ground; it ferments

like fallen leaves atop moss

the flies buzz hymnals

and maggots squeal 

gleeful, they’ll burrow holes 

a porous sponge 

for mud and dust and rainwater

raw and plain

sinking into the earth

your final resting place

aSoSS 26 | Fit

a-spider-on-state-street Leave a comment

I liked how our teacher had a coordinated outfit! It was new!

Central Campus Transit Center, 10AM, 8/28/2024

summer comes and the house is not as i remember it. flies cling to the windows like barnacles. i bet a bird died in there, you say as we pass. it must have been heat stroke– but i already knew, i could smell the sweetness in the leaves. trees mourn too, did you know that? everything in the world mourns. the curtains are rustled by an invisible breeze; god’s not watching, there’s nothing to see. what’s buried won’t burn us. the clouds are sharp and shapeless, jigsaw pieces strewn across a coffee-cream sky.

Fit check, how is it?

Nice, got on that Laufey… I know how to say it now, not loofah or whatever…

Alice Lloyd Hall, 5:00PM, 9/13/2024

it was there the day i left, a dust storm dressed in bronze, waiting for me at the corner of the station. you hid behind a newspaper dated a week into the future: soothsayer’s grin, reaper’s curse. i pretend not to notice but we are both done with pretending. the threat of eye contact forces me astray. someone shouts a name–not yours–and you turn. it wears your eyes and nothing else.

your memory is stagnant, a still pond. i forget your face in the swarm of gathering flies.

My favorite pants has holes in them, just from wearing it a lot, and I’m going to patch it but I think this might be their last season…

Michigan Union, 12:30PM, 9/24/2024

it’s not there anymore, is it? the things you save until you can’t be saved. markers leak and stain the canvas; stickers dry and cut your nailbeds. you move out and your nails are painted and the world is over, yet the earth continues to spin. the antenna spits static and the radio hums to life. does the flower wait for the bee to approach before it blooms? kill the fantasy. fall in love with the present.

conscience of theseus: if you replace every thought in your mind, are you the same person?

With another year brings another vibrant campus community! Rain or shine, the human experience perseveres. Whether this is your first introduction to aSoSS or we crossed paths last year, I’m so glad I could be a part of your day =)

Welcome back, stay a while // It’s been a minute and I miss that smile~