Sorcery

I’m a witch who lost all her powers, then
   in place of my powers, I got the coiled beauty
of seashells and sleeping infants. The coiled
beauty of eardrums, and the sound wave
of bells. The bells! This is the country of clouds.
       The molten body, the Floridian pinks,
       and centuries of sand dollars examining
the arcing waves. New territory
of interiority and I’m in the middle of this.
   White like a negative belt.
I am an airless thing. When I get high, I get low.
           But I’m real and airless and love you.

Credit

Copyright © 2016 by Sandra Simonds. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on January 6, 2016 by the Academy of American Poets.

About this Poem

“The poem is a short meditation on the mysterious, repetitive forms that emerge in nature—spirals of sound waves and shells—and their mysterious connection or disconnection to human powers (our emotional landscape, sense of self and intimacy).”
—Sandra Simonds