Black out and
you’re falling hard
through the asphalt-sky
wind razor-sharp cutting
body corporeal howling
hovering limbs star-fished, pancaked paragliding,
mind tearing
age [eroding] around you.
Your descent, increasing exponentially,
the patchwork landscape glistening Faberge tissue,
a quivering phosphorescent arc of
flickering blue copper chloride,
tracking, this
bird’s eye view of the
final fissure.
Buried in the
parched earth, subductions
etched in
spider vein fault-lines
horrible cracking
sparks
beneath,
precision
radiating walls of tsunami-c waves
in concentric circles.
Shaking chemical colours intensifying
‘Earthquake Light’ flashes
of cobalt lightning, electrical discharge [aftershocks]
in the atmosphere.
As you fall
backlit in cerulean clouds
your trajectory
marking the line
in thick jet, sumi, ink. Dripping
Chaboku strokes. Stipple.
Dot
Rest
[full stop]
inter-red body of mangled dimensions
black out and
Originally published in Soliloquies Anthology, Issue 27.1
Naomi Simone Borwein holds a PhD in English literature; and, she teaches at the University of Windsor. Her work appears or is forthcoming across a spectrum of publications: including HWA Poetry Showcase IX (featured poet), Beautiful Tragedies III, Ghost City Review, Grim & Gilded, and elsewhere. Naomi is a past head poetry editor of Swamp Writing (2018-2022)–and a reader for Thanatos Review. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
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This poem was featured on today’s episode of SPILLING THE INK along with special guest ChatGPT to weigh in on the benefits and dangers of AI by asking AI itself.