January 2022
Sadie bat Kalman
Over the coming weeks, as we turn to the new year, L&F will be publishing a series of short pieces on the theme “A Vision of the Future.” The initial pieces are the result of a housewarming gathering at a friend’s house in southern Arizona with the same prompt. Friends brought dreams, poems, interpretative dances, speeches, and theses on the theme, instructed to keep them under 3 minutes long.
because in future’s tomorrow
the first fig, the lilac sticky&sappy&finger-dripping,
the bitter wave & the water bearer, and eyes open endless time,
the oleander yearning, the trails paced overgrown & easy,
the passing time carves souls gently, the gloaming & the ironweed,
and bittersweet, endless, always, real slow, seeds planted,
and the first order of business, taking only what grows back in double,
and the altar not mine, nor yours: the abundance, an acorn squash in a rickety oven;
the rivers, causeways, bridges, tunnels, eels, worms, and lovely dead:
the milkweed filaments casting shadows real slow
and today we all eat from the same bowl, peaches drip we kiss our friends,
and we’ve learned to be dandelions: subtle and sweet, and tomatoes: round and full,
the layers, the love, the field awash with thorns, bright with petals:
the always someone who turns the lights off, someone to walk gently- the achey atmosphere and the mouth of the sun open wide- someone will take my olive hands in theirs, and like moths drawn toward the light, we’ll make a big pot of rice and sleep never alone.