#you have been happening

I’m fine, things are fine. You know how space
can crack into three, like the light inside
your eyelids? Yeah, me too, I know about it.
Today, though, the dark searches me like a wound.

I am here in the window, I’m lifting my foot,
beneath me is soil and above that white wood.
Last night at O’Connell’s I split into two,
the room was a river I had to swim through.

Be here. Right now. Be here.

I found ten things to show you:
a blue bird pulsing in his skin,
a wet car in the rain combed over by the wind,
my body like a stone dropped deep into my sheets,
the roses grown inside of walls, how the wild patternless repeats.

If you were here, I’d name them for you—rock and self and cliff—
but when I see you, I’ll pretend I didn’t carry you through this.

Chessy Normile, Great Exodus, Great Wall, Great Party (Copper Canyon Press, 2020)