from sacrifice
Open open mouth belly breath till I symphony gooey light tongue pulsing stars liquid night and my feet vibrating like those swifts I saw migrating in fall, their flocked bodies pressing tension of frantic wings scooping air. Your arms are long and hands reach everywhere. Entangled with the dark I forget my own beginning. Did the swifts try to hold a slice of cloud as they dove into the chimney? A sliver of sun?
Read more in Hawaiʻi Review 88.
Claudia F. Savage is an Arab-American poet/teacher. Part of the performance duo Thick in the Throat, Honey, she authored Bruising Continents (Spuyten Duyvil) and has published in Water-Stone Review, Denver Quarterly, BOMB, and Columbia Journal. Reductions, with visual artist Jacklyn Brickman, will be shown in Chicago in 2018.