By Patrycja Humienik
i wake awash in petals, poppy,
cold-blooded
belly on the ground
witness to a voice kicked up to flock
dust specks assembling into murmuration
flight of closeness i don’t remember
when fierce light turned soft
softest sky i’ve ever seen dust hollows me out to lips
sticking to teeth taste of dirt in the water but i like it
i wake dressed in earth thirsty
i rise to dawn one star left thirsty
into the meat of the afternoon thirsty
and i can only carry my own death
Patrycja Humienik, daughter of Polish immigrants, is a writer and movement artist based in Seattle, WA. Her poetry is featured/forthcoming in Passages North, Hobart, The Boiler, Four Way Review, The Shallow Ends, and No Tender Fences: An Online Anthology of Immigrant & First-Gen Poetry, among others. Find her on twitter @jej_sen.
Art by Michelle Johnsen, art editor
Michelle Johnsen is a nature and portrait photographer in Lancaster, PA, as well as an amateur herbalist and naturalist. Her work has been featured by It’s Modern Art, Susquehanna Style magazine, Permaculture Activist magazine, EcoWatch.com, EarthFirst! Journal, Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative, and used as album art for Grandma Shake!, Anna & Elizabeth, and Liz Fulmer Music. Michelle’s photos have also been stolen by AP, weather.com, The Daily Mail, and Lancaster Newspapers. You can contact her at mjphoto717 [at] gmail.com.