blue & unspoiled

by Lucia Llano for SEANCE2: Green Boots

it was warm once.

seabed. till the continents kissed; 

pressed their teeth against one another & pulled

the marine floor up by a string to the sky. 

under the frozen salt,

you can still see the coiled spines of once-shelled things.

at the summit, your feet rest on

the limestone ribs of some big creature that once was sea. 



now– a temptation disguised in windhorse flags & will,

littered with bottles & bottles of breath

& bodies swollen in sun-bleached parkas, conjuring up

faint memories of orange sun-heat, savoring

the fetish of the unattainable, dangling

lightly from strings and ladders and glaciers.

all to be able to say;

you could go to the top of the world & forever find a piece of me there.

my blue, unspoiled life. an asphyxiated finger i once touched you so soft with. 



now– fluorescent & scintillating

your face pressed to a pillow of snow

having dreams of hot tea

at the top of the world,

while the hurt gathers up


             
                                                                                                         its
                                                                                       heavy things.                                                                                                                              
                                                                         later two headlamps               
                                           	                        will move in the dark
                                                                  & find you for the first time.
                                                                their light’ll flicker & catch you
                                                                      in a small burst of     heat
                                                                  like a dog curled
                                                                                                up in a patch
                                                                                               of sun. 
                                                                                              & it’ll end like
                                                                                                   it
                                                                                         started: 
                                                                                     a skeleton 
                                                                                    coiled in 
                                                                         marine      
                                                                             limestone.