what i found in your face

Alexis:

land air teeth

soft growing

moon guide

laughter

soft growing

words

laughter

my future

words

i would memorize

my future

practice to shape

i would memorize

your face

practice to shape

the sound of you

your face

moon guide

the sound of you

land air teeth

Clyde:

twin suns

both eyes

your mouth

sound of ocean

both eyes

holding mine

sound of ocean

speaking prophecy

holding mine

gold future

speaking prophecy

truest wealth

gold future

poems of hair

truest wealth

what were you saying

poems in your hair

your mouth

what you were saying

twin suns

Every sunrise I meet my father again. I study him, right here in my own face. And then there are my mother’s photographs, my face close to my father’s face and both of us nearsighted. This poem imagines what might we have seen in each other’s faces during my second month of breathing. Dad still in the throes of his Saturn return, that time when all the lessons you have been able to avoid in your life come at you in a form that you cannot ignore. I am that form. And now, with all the lessons I am learning now, especially the visceral emotional lessons of grief, all I want is to look into my father’s face. But what I have is my face. I am in form the energy of he who now lives formless throughout the galaxy. And so I look myself in the eye and form the poem. Sun rise. Again.

P.S. My every day writing practice shapes my days into vessels for generations of love. If you want support with your own daily creative practice, I’d love to be part of your journey. This is the Stardust and Salt Daily Creative Practice Intensive.