A silver-blue star at the bottom of a glass. A blood spot:
something shed from the body
transforms, crawls away on red wire legs. A dark spot
blossoms on your face, tunnels inward and becomes
a blankness in your brain. Border between tonalities
of skin. I press your body to
my face mid-ascension, reasoning we were never human,
always foxes holding too hard to our sources
of protection. Darkening can be a trace of love. In a dust storm
darkening can be a loss of
dimensionality. In the before of our family
twin sisters died, one at birth the other
something to do with earthquake. Nameless halves of a swept unit.
Salt left mid-air. Silver and silver and silver
the tear-stars flood their containment. I skip stones at the edge
of Callao, sling language across the blue: I knew
you, I wish I knew you. A plane of water dazes
after a stone has sunk.
I have begged the animal inside me to release
its captive light. I have hurled this
toward you out of silence, attempting contact
with what I will never contact
again. A body lodged
behind the eclipse.
From The Blue Mimes by Sara Daniele Rivera. Copyright © 2024 by Sara Daniele Rivera. Reprinted by permission of Graywolf Press.