Waning Gibbous

Early,
voices heard of
mumbling flies
and crickets.
Breathing flowers
inhaling for a dying cloud,
a passing cloud
in the shape of a
deer.
Though deer rot
on sides of roads
furs for Corpus Christi,
the train howling
to orphaned wolves.
Wolf folds into man
his coat vowed to silence
by the wind.
Greater things
like God.
a God who whispers
Warmth to the feet of thieves
Darkness to the belly of stars
Shadows to the blind, who press
without a flicker
themselves to the wall.
Purring eyes
foliage dust and bone.
Her legs sweep
broken pegs on tracks
towards the station
rust anchoring the bridge
where she was captive
where she learned to fly.


e. chayes

Moksha

mo·ksha 
[mohk-shuh]
noun_Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism.
liberation; release from the finitude that restricts us from the limitless being, consciousness, and bliss our hearts desire. 

Thank you, the man repeated as I gathered my things and shook his hands.
Thank you, thank you.
I zipped my jacket.
Thank you.
With a nod I implied the pleasure was mine and saw in his sincerity that no one in the six years since he'd moved to Milan had looked into his eyes on a train. They were the kind of eyes you learn, set deep above elegant cheekbones. Though the unkempt hairs across his face revealed that society had ordained otherwise.

Most people don't look at you, at least not honestly and especially not into the pupils of people whose palms bare soot like city street signs. As one moves through a modern world it's hard to be stopped, to be seen. Under the scope of passerby, these men cluster like dust in the corners of rooms: unnoticed, resilient.

The silence was broken roughly eight minutes into the journey when the man pointed his finger and inquired with unique cadence (as one who had mastered Marathi and Italian could) the open page on my lap. Forty-six and seven -- mess of my pen's markings -- lay heavy insights into Eastern philosophies. I clasped the book by its binding between my thumb and index fingers and turned it so that he could see the white cover on both sides. The title, that I recall from my first Word program as being cleverly labeled Taj Mahal,  was black with green accents: Franny and Zooey. 

His grin revealed familiarity and so we wove together, from foreign tongues, topics of home and humans and discovery.
The man had eight children. He believed in God. He was kind and well-read and worked hard. He was small and noble; strong and salient.

His eyes mud and honey melted a frosty world the way sun blesses grass with dew.

He knew. I knew. But the others on the train-- burried in machines and handbags -- were left unaware as I stepped off the platform and into the rain.

e. chayes

Morning-Glory

(for my sister)

The air spoke and Veolla could hear it. Still, she lay under heaps of sheets. Her verdant eyes gazed without blinking not out, but into the openness.

Polished oak floors supported her bed: a throne under high ceilings. No other furniture stood in the room except for a gold-trimmed Victorian mirror that only embellished the feeling that in her loneliness, she was not alone.

Most would consider the company of those no longer present intimidating. But her tenderness gave her strength as the soft foliage of a rose allows it to remain beautiful in winter.

I awoke down the hall. The white sense of morning shone through sheer curtains and I saw (since I tried to feel what I knew my sister could see, without trying) the shapelessness of shaking atoms.

Veolla had persisted through the night; fearless of the dark. My awareness of this was not through words nor sight, but through the circuit of light that kept us connected regardless of physicality or place. Though I could empathize with her ability to see through time, I could not do so myself; at least not as vividly. Veolla had always crafted magic the way gravity holds us to the earth and allows us to watch, individually, each star on Orien's belt. She was rarely predictable in prophetic moments; but kept you steady on a rapidly spinning planet.

I entered the suite to find Veolla calm. The right side of her face was gently exposed; the left, guarded in down pillow. She stretched her slender arms and arose with eyes fluttering wide.

As had been shared so many mornings wiping sleep from our eyes, we walked through the room we knew was never empty to have coffee downstairs in wool socks and satin robes.

e. chayes