Long World
Running toward electric
lines, soft animals, wired
people who ran away,
languages were hard to
hear without your hands, wind
was cold, but full of caws,
worlds exploded slowly,
falling rocks beneath me
breathed deeper and
longer. I kept quiet
in the long world.
I was a warm ghost
among the living, my voice
a swallowed bird. My heart
couldn’t stop playing dead.
There was a starlight
that called me. I kept it.
lines, soft animals, wired
people who ran away,
languages were hard to
hear without your hands, wind
was cold, but full of caws,
worlds exploded slowly,
falling rocks beneath me
breathed deeper and
longer. I kept quiet
in the long world.
I was a warm ghost
among the living, my voice
a swallowed bird. My heart
couldn’t stop playing dead.
There was a starlight
that called me. I kept it.
Amanda Chiado’s poem "Armor" is part of the 2019 Visible Poetry Project, animated by Marc Burnett. She is the author of the chapbook Vitiligod: The Ascension of Michael Jackson (Dancing Girl Press, 2016). Her poetry and short fiction most has most recently appeared in The Pinch, Barren Magazine, and Entropy. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart & Best of the Net. She is the Director of Arts Education at the San Benito County Arts Council, is an active California Poet in the Schools, and edits for Jersey Devil Press.
Art: The Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings via Public Domain Review