K. Blue
By Khashayer Mohammadi

is the only color that aged with me
the only shade to carry the weight of displacement
chillradiant come throes of ecstasy under the sky
chillradiant come cover of dusk on the balcony nostalgic
there is this chemical latch between two halves of the mind
the moments we surface 
saturated colors flattened
patio furniture 
dappled behind eyelids 
that if closed are the only pure womb
a word-shrub
above the outstretched hand reaching 
till sunken 
into screaming carpets
growing into its fear of growing/ 
impermanence as slippery 
as eternity
fear a stage 4 simulacrum of eternity
vestigial 
the psychotic made tangibly psychic 
with feet firmly planted in sand 
eyes staring down:
are my toes within reach?
or are they the ultimate borders
of the known universe?

R. Divine the Dirt
By Roxanna Bennett

O my toes, half-broken, numbly purpled
& cold          Divine the dirt: discarded 

peanut shells, pot ash, shattered shards
of a plaster dollar store Buddha      impermanence

is this rib cage fattened past winter
but shattered, twisted       off-kilter        

kaleidoscopic     my “normal” 
is as normal doesn’t know     how to fall                           

onto a pile of glass from the inside     
I displace me   what I meant   (is this what I 

meant)   Is anything an accident        
depends  on perception & intent

O the colours, the saturation
what colour is this tree        crimson 

burgundy violet green  incandescent     
To climb a tree                        

to use my limbs impossibly     
to strengthen    a position    

Are there two halves  
of the mind or a whole partitioned       

by conditioning          
In the old red bathtub

I drown    new universes 
of hurt by the cupful, 

foam film a thin barrier 
between each burning lungful 

of fisted air