charm for salvaging disparate bits of perfection

Nic Sebastian

in a land of pouring cloud

a boy rides alone

over a wide plain

and finds one tree

 

lying spread-eagled

on pricking grass beneath it

he feels the thick soil

humming deeply

 

he remembers

a white stone monastery

on the edge of a chasm

under black mountains

and wheeling falcon

 

he remembers gleaming marshes

lit by dead suns

watched over by headless

stone lions

 

I am the golden snake

gliding into you, my inside

is wider by far

than my outside

 

eyes closed

he feeds this perfect thought

slowly into the brown earth

 

his horse shifts restlessly

beneath the tree

 

Nic Sebastian hails from Arlington, Virginia and travels widely. Her first collection, Forever Will End On Thursday was edited by Jill Alexander Essbaum and published by Lordly Dish Nanopress - a poetry press with a twist. Her work has appeared in Valparaiso Poetry Review, Anti-, MiPOesias, Salt River Review, Mannequin Envy, Avatar Review and elsewhere. Nic blogs at Very Like A Whale. She is building an audio anthology of her readings of contemporary poetry at Whale Sound and is the founder of Voice Alpha, a group blog focused on the art of reading poetry aloud for an audience.

All content © The Coachella Review