Leza Lowitz
we slit the soles of our feet.we wanted to transcend the pain. we bled ribbons of blood and held our breaths at midnight as we floated up to the dark dark sea. on land we came upon things that love changed: the black dogs on white highways who bared their teeth to shine in the darkness. the darkness that became the day. we wanted love to sing shine on me moon of the mountain's edge but when we opened our mouths our tongues had disappeared and all we could do was look at the violence of these unfinished things.
there were no princes. it was simple. rocks on the shore were heavy. our bodies had weight. we were clumsy. everywhere we looked love found us watching; love was a shapeshifter, glow-in-the-dark star i stuck on the ceiling of a blue heron sky. love was a blue chrysanthemum on our naked eyes, an ornament of glass to roll over . when we wanted bitterness we called it a persimmon and spit it out like bitter seeds. when we wanted peace, we called on ouselves to start a war so we could end up dying in each other's arms. we wanted to know love, to know something we didn't know. we saw people biting at each other in mirrors, throwing stools and flashlights and eating frenzied chocolates in their dreams. some jumped from buildings and flew into each other's backs, crashing bone by bone into the yellow rooftops of taxicabs.
we couldn't catch love. love was a shadow, the reflection of the moon on the water. the sight of land after a long voyage, a mirage that was really just a wave. we tried to find a dog to carry us to the moon on the edge of a dark highway and teach us to keep our courage in the face of headlights, but love had wet our hearts and we were heavy. we tried to sing shine on me, shine on me oh moon of the mountain's edge, but love had changed us too so when the dogs came it was only to lick the purple ribbons of our scars.
