Poetry

Useable Truths

1. (common space)

Across the state from you, I'm always with you--
sunny May morning, I saw the half-moon outline you left
on the feather bed. Rays refracting through fishbowl
waters, my room was an undersea cave. And, when I
told you this was our expanse, I really did mean my
bedroom. I watched you sleep, the humid mist,
our socks resting together in a heap,
the moon through the open window--you were sea-bathed.
Tonight I will still hear your breathing, your face to the left,
your mouth half-open and sleeping with laughter and grief.

2. (the antagonist)

I have always been told we are gendered one color,
you said,
as you took out two crayons and held them to your nose.

But I was born in this woman's body
and I am purple.
I am garish and as pink
as the hinge between sky and ocean at sunset.
I am vibrant and as blue
as a newborn's eyes opening to their first light.

When you walked out of the room
you said,
I am swirled purple and am not struggling.

3. (the morning after)

Where we got drunk on coffee as thick as lead
and split sweet cheese pastries, the air seemed
painted in you. Oil-coated lilacs and the friction
of our minds sent chills like tremors into our
words. You passed me a note
from behind The Fact of a Doorframe:
We are not alone.
That July evening the moon shone in shades
of egg-drop yellow above your eyes.
On top of the table we laced our fingers
and put our palms together. Your hands
were as small as mine and in them
I trusted my life--I shattered
my silence.

4. (hysteria's allochiria)

There was no longer an evenness to your touch,
no longer my one body or your singular sensation.
We wrapped ourselves in a bright chrysalis
and, in our topography, we found solace.
There was a thrill in loving you, in your pleasure.
You were a rhapsody painted flesh tones,
a concerto written for a reason and in your hands
I found my wilderness, my adventure.

5. (resistance)

I saw you walk past the coffee-shop window.
You were my poem and I wanted to watch you in motion.
Your form and content not so easily written in two-tones
like Yang and Yin-one dark, one bright-one
unable to be simply set against the other.

The pearl spiral of Yang and the shadowed sound of Yin--
if we hear them, read them--we take them in
not so easily through our ears.

If I make you a poem set off against a back-drop of poetry,
you might apply you to your life and thought or action--
you might want to reach further into your world,
into yourself, towards a further experience.

By Emily Moon.
By day, Emily Moon is a Technical Writer who writes articles for Microsoft's Knowledge Base. She is also the Content Creator and Marketing Guru for SustainableSource.Com, an environmentally friendly retailer. During free time, Emily enjoys her six ferrets, one love bird, and the most perfect husband a woman could ever want.