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Elemental
by Binnie Pasquier
If we’re on a planet
in time and place
is it that the planet lives
within experience
I was born not breathing
the doctor reeled me in
coerced me to the brew
that wraps the earth
air as close as my mouth
adds my voice to its mix
carries music on the breeze
touches doorways with its kiss
it’s the space inside a coffin
between my origin and me
As a girl I’d swing to watch
the earth approach and drop away
feel lifted on the curve
until mid-point in the sky
at once ascent and fall
I imagined I was no different
than the rest
I am moss and marble
clay laid by the stream
I sprout vervaine bruises
in the field
dust and leafrot
dead remains
soil pitted by the rain
Then trying hard to come back home
like heavy waking from a dream
I let the chains slip through my hands
and tumbled to the ground
scratched my face to make it bleed
sucked stones to keep my body one
At seventeen I was a virgin
lying naked by the fire
in my first love’s house
warmth around my body like a shawl
I raised a thigh
to send the glint his way
be shown in red relief
the color of cardinals, roses, and silk
here are my breasts
here the nerves’ synapses –
gaps that must be leaped
But flames play out in shadows
a dragon’s angry hunting
blackened cavern walls
like witnesses to puppet play in Bali
recreating fearsome myth
we kept the screen between us
not believing we could hold
back fire with a kiss
If there’s death
may it be like water
fluid and pewter in a storm
windanouncer
shadowmover
mirror to the moon
I remember my father holding my hands in the waves
everything depended on the deliberate sea
In the cloudy pond
I’ll let my toes curl
away from the bottom
keep my eyes open wide
to see the ghostly light
blur my edges
water smoothing me
first to silt
then to powder
weightless
ready to dissolve