Poetry Reading: THE SILT OF GRIEVING, by Natalie Haynes

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

—For my mother

while night scoops down to transform silt in the veins
spilling into day a slow drowning in songs from the waters of life
stretched fraying before day breaks
to dying embers of temporariness
wind blows like candle flames struggling,
calling with moans bodies of water found at home;
an odorous loneliness confers the darkness
etched in-between the broken lines in my face are alive.
the shelter-less river a spongy bait
of human ruins mislaid at the shore
offers a chastity of charity to bury loss…
dangling upon the wingless moon of nights—
carrying thrice my remains like an aura—
searching the language of color
coughed into the tears of thunderstorms,
clomping raw emotions into leverages of sand.
photocopied here a wet purpose of sacred water
reflects love
with a voice reposing gravity.
here, drink
drink of the sounds wafting into the hungry clouds
walking distress into god’s ears,
whispering what becomes of night
when the moon is put to shame in the nape of a thunderstorm.
a decorated death wind returns the echo of my wails;
standing before a mirror’s shadow praying,
tongue-shattered, I do not break:
a billowing tone rose a sun over my head as hands
touching the attire of my scarred morning breaths
brimming into freshness, night’s mouth.