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CALIFORNIA IS GOING TO HELL
body in motion
sun of daedalus / song of anticlea
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// The doctor explains the significance of color while we await the results:
white — communication, sex /
the pleats in a white curtain between two hospital beds
orange — speech, language /
the orange phone mounted on my grandmother’s kitchen wall
blue — movement, travel /
a blue tractor in a green field on a glossy postcard
red — thought, persistence /
a red journal in an open backpack propped on the seat of a train
//
I was always so glad I had a bright journal.
I was so worried I would lose it. /
her lap full of papers, an edifice in looseleaf
How far have you gone? /
shoving the whole structure into her backpack
as the train pulls into the station
and the conductor sways up the aisle
Far, I think. /
black rocks rimed with ice, a landscape of cyanotypes
edging the chasm where two continents pull apart
And where are you trying to get back to? /
an orange cat on a fog-glutted fence
a douglas fir fractaling the sky
I’d like to get back to being lost. /
headphones shedding beads of black foam
scotch broom and black-eyed susans yellowing the roadside
We understand each other completely.
Are you happy to have a sister finally? /
I have always had a sister. /
one by blood, one by choice
and now this one, this
stranger, the seam between our worlds.
Leila Walker
is a queer New Yorker living in Queens. She is also an assistant professor and digital scholarship librarian at Queens College.
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PARADE
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luisa brimble
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the mag
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CALIFORNIA IS GOING TO HELL
body in motion
sun of daedalus / song of anticlea
submit to the press
support us