Content Warning: mental health, dark themes
Jamie Weil - fugue with two moons
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fore and middle fingers on my temple, curve of my thumb
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flowing into my jaw. this
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is what i saw: a fire-breasted oriole
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standing—as if in headlights—on the amber waves of this dying
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and birthing lawn. catch me, little bird; you’ve got far more strength.
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if i am reading this right, a binary system makes gravity
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a matter of perspective:
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a planet can be a satellite if it means to,
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and people can bury anything in the desert if they agree
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that they should. we’ve been arguing in my head for hours.
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god, i’m tired of using my hand like an antenna. no, not you.
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it was a figure of speech.
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focus just right and those amber waves
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are a transport. as the oriole flies, i sink in. i keep blinking.
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if i am reading this right—i can’t be reading this right. no way.
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i straddle through the dark. my chest is aflame, my wings are in shadow.
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remind me, how does this work?
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if two bodies circle as near-equals,
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how do they make up; shake hands? if gravity goes wild for balance,
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we must—we must—uncover the middle. well, that’s emptiness, dear.
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doused in this assumption, we try to smile. we embrace. we asphyxiate.
Best viewed on desktop, please also find a PDF file available to download here.
Jamie Weil (She/Her) has been writing poetry for three-and-a-half years, but had been writing sappy song lyrics long before that. She is a recent graduate of Oberlin College, where she majored in Creative Writing and History. When she isn’t writing, Jamie enjoys sketching, embroidery, watching baseball and basketball, and playing and/or listening to music. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Catchwater Magazine, Mausoleum Press, celestite poetry, and Swim Press.
Artwork: Easy Moon by Susan Solomon
Susan Solomon is a freelance paintress living in the Midwestern United States. Her work camps out at the intersection of memory and intuition. She has paintings in private collections around the world and in several university collections. If people say they'd like to enter the paintings, she feels she has succeeded.