ROOM 46.2: Ley Line Sneak Peek

River 瑩瑩 Dandelion

Step into the in-between with a sneak peek from ROOM 46.2: Ley Line.

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Introduction

by RIVER 瑩瑩 DANDELION

here, we change our name when we feel called
come together by life’s path not age
people concerned with self-remembrance death
lactose intolerance

we use pronouns of animacy & inanimacy
not masculine & feminine
like how robin does in potawatomi

we smashed all clocks
threw debris into compost machine
rediscovered eternity in rice field terraces
of our fingertips

bodies grew to redwoods.

we don’t have many words for becoming
memories etched to paper need not be drawing
reviving forgotten stories need not make writer
bud to flower, just another stage
of transformation

free to be metamorphosis.

we listen to each other
how we listen to rising tides
in conch shells

cradle body gently
eyes flutter closed

let vibrations
unravel seams.

at night we hug our bodies
whisper good job today
tumultuously soft like ocean
fauna of life, crackling coral of wonder

sleep comes easy.

children, geniuses from small
know intuition
& safety young

we stopped hurting as much.

rage buried to soil
anger dissipated in atmosphere

after the universe scattered
we searched
& fell into gravitational force

returned in waves
just like nayyirah says how water loves

palm lines strings of guitar
vocal chords symphony
heartbeats earth’s rhythmic bellows

here, we produce our own light
store & summon it in our bodies
incandescent, like plankton.

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Don’t forget to grab a copy of ROOM 46.2: Ley Line.

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River 瑩瑩 Dandelion is a practitioner of ancestral medicine through writing poetry, facilitating, and creating ceremony. He writes to connect with the unseen and unspoken so we can feel and heal. A Tin House resident and Kundiman fellow, River has traveled to Chinatowns around the world to document stories of diaspora. riverdandelion.com.

Tags: Issue 46.2 | Poetry