SUBURBAN PASTORAL
by Kasandra Larsen
Sun paints the underside of gunmetal with fuchsia:
crickets start to clearly telegraph, hidden in moss,
spidered cracks between stones in walls keeping
architectured lawns from toppling. The day
that began crisply pressed is nearly faded,
smudged palette swaggering into evening, dragging
a tide of stars. Soon, tiny lights will bristle, remind us
of our lack of altitude, swing on their hinges
to replace clouds that threatened to unleash
their ammunition on commuters hurrying home
from bus stops, too rushed to notice that fledgling
with the red breast squawking, beating feathers
more fuzz than wing for one more worm, a mother
swooping to deliver the inevitable pink of carnage.
GUIXIN: GHOST HEART
The point, medial at the wrist joint, between tendons
on the pericardium meridian (membrane holding the heart)
echo of its protector which would bleed from here
in antiquity but now pressed with a forefinger, ostensibly
to regain movement in the thumb to once again clutch without pain:
on another plane the ghost is trying to get you
to search for remnants reaching out in dreams
as spirits begin to control the emotions
holding them back. Relating to the Soul’s Third
Manifestation, the manipura chakra unsettled, disturbed
solar plexus, bright yellow unable to digest the past,
difficulty shutting off the mind or becoming unconscious
to sleep. Fear of becoming a ghost as well? A doppelganger
heart, hovering in shadow one beat pulsing red
behind? Lung qi cannot descend into formless darkness.
Press the point. Press it, again,
breathing, deep until two hearts settle
in reunion, until night comes and the hand closes easily
around the sheet, holds the body steady for caresses,
the peace of clouds scudding across only the lit side of the moon.
CLIMBING BACK INTO MY SKIN
After ten years of terror, I am crawling back in
to my skin. I try again to sleep in a straight line
on my back, hands unclenched, but mornings find
me curled around the pillow. This will take more time
than I had thought. I come home from a hard day,
remember that disco exists, allow myself to turn
the volume up to numb, toss my head back, wave
my hands in the air. But not like I don’t care:
I am saving myself, one mambo step and grapevine
at a time. I stand in the shower for a solid hour, let
the hot water run out, drop my towel on the floor
and frighten the cat. My windows are open. I don’t care
about that. Finally, I am alone, down a long alley
you cannot see from the street, behind a metal gate
that locks and a brick wall topped with glass, inside
an apartment whose address is known only to
a very few, untraceable. I know what I have to do;
I lie atop the sheets at night, let my fingers write
gentle letters to my skin. I had forgotten how it feels
to be a joyful vessel. Slowly, I let myself back in.
BIO
Kasandra Larsen has poetry in The Gambler Magazine, Into the Void Magazine (Dublin), Stoneboat Literary Journal, Literary Juice, Flumes Literary Journal, and Stonecoast Review. Poems are forthcoming in March 2016 at FIVE:2:ONE’s #thesideshow. Her manuscript, CONSTRUCTION, was a finalist for the 2016 Four Way Books Intro Prize in Poetry, and her chapbook, STELLAR TELEGRAM, won the 2009 Sheltering Pines Press Chapbook Award. Nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize and a Best of the Net Award, she works as an accountant for the Providence Public Library.
I have a deep admiration for Ms. Kasandra Larsen and her gift for enlightening us through the written word. Her intuitive perspectives on the human condition reflect an insight available to few, and even fewer are able to express those insights with such stark honesty.