Parched
      After Sandra Maria Esteves

When I am parched
Dried
by what is taken
And not returned

I seek the water
Open my gullet
Allow myself to become glass
Pot
Vase
A place for pouring

I pray
Liquifying fears of the unknown
Into invitations to my depths

Begging the clouds around me
To complete their cycles
To bring rain
Drip onto me
Portals
Wet waterways to strength
Gathering around my ankles
Drenching my crown
Shining it

Cleansing me of colonization
Of filth
Of poor understanding
And underestimations
Bounding around me

I open my mouth to the sky
Grateful for the extension
To drink the water
My ancestors drank

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Me and Melodies

Music and I
have something going on
it's been
courting me
while I marinated in my mother
provision for rhythm
making amniotic waves
I swayed, even then
I kicked
I reached for sound
Emerged into the world
still searching for melodies

Now

the only thing that can stop me
reroute me
root me again

I was conceived on hips and clef notes
maturing to listen better
hearing visions now
mixing jazz into my morning tea
age piper-ing me to nature
eager to step outside myself

I seek the trumpeting of wind
the sun, a grand piano
there is reggae in the grass today
steel pans pang
against the drumming dew
stretching my toes into the earth
sinking myself deeper in
perceiving sound in full color
music painting me recklessly

and I
lavish in the cadence of controlled calamity
red breasted birds return my breath to me
their flapping close kin to applause
small creatures climb onto my back
also hoping to journey
listening for the notes
knowing there is no form to love
but recognizing
all that sings