Back to Issue Forty-Two

A Loose Dissertation on Movement, with Souls of Mischief as Soundtrack

BY ALAN CHAZARO

 

I’m carrying distant shores

on my fingertips though I don’t

know what mileage I’ve left

behind me.

I’m telling you: I’ve inherited

this loss of sunlight, the frozen

curvature of floating

eyes. I promise you: this lyric

is covered in the shape

of a Mexican serape

in winter, the birth

of a candlelight’s truth.

Hygge means you don’t know

what’s beneath the open

courtyards until you’ve come up

for more air—but I won’t

call for breath

until I’ve lived

beyond myself. Pour me

a double round

of wet afternoons and basketball

hoops near subway stations.

Watch the snow

dribble into streaks

across your double-laced hoodie.

This is where I want to fold

into nothing I can pronounce.

This is how I want to chill

inside myself. This is why I take

free throws as if it matters.

This is where I’ll stand

from now til’ infinity.

 

Alan Chazaro is the author of This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album (Black Lawrence Press, 2019), Piñata Theory (Black Lawrence Press, 2020), and Notes from the Eastern Span of the Bay Bridge (Ghost City Press, 2021). He is a graduate of June Jordan’s Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley and a former Lawrence Ferlinghetti Fellow at the University of San Francisco. He writes for SFGATE, KQED, Okayplayer, and 48 Hills.

Next (Dante Clark) >

< Previous (Michaela Coplen)