A Crown of Dust

(a cento)



13

pure as a body saddled with sentience

Then came the mast of a tall ship
the air troubled above

even an underground sea can be a valley.

I gorge on fragments, always requiring something

The attar of grass, recently cut.
A yoke of beauty. A beak was missing The burden

       The meat a memory. A feat of engineering.

Grey fog, blue sunlight, stones like big footprints

The sea hanging from our tongues. Extinct horses

under a chestnut where edible mushrooms
see the hand's unintended imprint on the shore

In this country, everyone fears midday.

and waiting.



Line sources:
Kristine Ong Muslim, Stefania Gomez, Leila Chatti, Anna
Glazova, Omotara James, Daniel Halpern, Michelle Phuong
Ho, Chen Chen, Grady Chambers, Jorge Galan, Henri Cole,
Joanna Goodman, Tada Chimako, Ayesha Asad