Beautiful Orcas Island / Photographer: Hunter Knapp
Honey
When I was younger
I would pour honey into raspberries
And I would lay
In the itchy fresh cut grass
The sprinkler raining over my head
I would close my eyes
Let the sun shine through my eyelids
Form red, splotchy
Kaleidescope impressions
Of the world around me
I would close my eyes
And pretend I have wings
These days, the divinity of August
Is dampened by twelve hour shifts
By budgeting gas money
And coming home at nine p.m.
Just to make a late lazy dinner
Out of a microwave package
But some days
I lay in bed
And the sun falls in specks on my chest
It is warm and I smile
I hear the birds
I could almost pretend I have wings
Whitewashed
The whitewashed walls of a Christian church
Push my shoulder blades flat
The planks fit like missing pieces
Into the notches in my vertebrae, and that makes me laugh
It’s funny to me, how when I give up
On trying to change the place, and let the place change me
Epiphanies roll like the incoming tide
Like traffic spilling onto a highway, mangled and free
And the cars are coming faster now
They’re speeding, speeding up
Flying down the coast and jumping in the sea
The water fills them up like plastic cups
I will sit, and wait, and watch
Take note and notice of all these things
From my perch behind the Christian church
The choir starts to sing