on top of the earth resting in uncertainty

uneasy as poseidon’s flat, i breathe, in ocean air & bear terror in
paradise. everyone / i know knows someone with a raspy voice. we’re

all, fleeing to forests & pouring wine over cracked hands. the numbers the
numbers is all that falls from mouths. me n g wake from

slumber with / the essence of our dreams twisted with city dread. we
left / everyone more or less in search of a flattened curve. the

tension stays with us in bed, bunched sheets even with fresh air
coming in, the beauty only serves us in the daytime, at dusk

it’s all shaken words, full screens, & janused declarations. i don’t
know what to believe anymore. my body has never been more animated /

my brain has never been so extinct. slowly spudding moss from the
folds, i drink elixirs that make the time pass like mad / made

to hold liquid droplets inside, these days exuberance is deemed a
liability. these days i have 12 of everything & somehow still am

running low, the numbers the numbers keep people in line, i suppose
they always have / boxes revealed by mayhem / known. these days even

at the summit of the earth, the crows cry of heavy skies / remaining.
the clouds hold awareness of senescence, & it has just begun to rain.

By Colette Chien

Biography:

My name is Colette Chien. I am a senior at Sarah Lawrence College with a concentration in poetry and wildlife ecology. My previous published work includes my chapbook, “the poison in our houses” in Silent Actions Magazine, the poem, “i was born into this place a bit of fire & a cancer” into Love and Squalor magazine, and the poem, “visceral fears & ampersands have nothing to do with this” in The Sarah Lawrence College Literary Review.