“night thoughts” by Sierra Louie
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “night thoughts” by Sierra Louie.
“night thoughts” by Sierra Louie
By Sierra Louie
we are lying in bed / and I am suddenly desperate / for a breath of the midnight sky / I would say this to
you / but you are already elsewhere / scratchy robinโs egg sweater / puckering retinoid skin / I want to
share this feeling / with you / but it wonโt crawl out from between my lips / settle solid as fog / within your
thoughts / do you know how it hurts / the nothing ringing in your ears / the whistle of wind chill / silence /
hollow pockets of air quilting our mattress / I wonder how it would feel / to return / everything back
to you / your name and your knitwear / to clothe myself in the ultramarine light of our room / and freeze to prove
a point / I wait / frost accumulating poppy at my fingertips / for you to notice / heavy veins beneath my
eyelids / pulsing / electric / I imagine telling you / how cornflowers soaked in tepid water can be used / as
a wash for tired eyes / so that you might hear this / soak the petals for me / tuck them in bloated and
heavy / tonight I submerge them myself / weigh the buds soft beneath my thumbprints / tomorrow / I will
coat my tongue in denim dye / drip a belated confession across your chest / see if it will seep into you /
this time / before I forget / dissolve the message / gulp my night thoughts back down again
Copyright ยฉ Sierra Louie
Sierra Louie is a Chinese-Canadian writer and artist working on unceded xสทmษฮธkสทษyฬษm, Sแธตwxฬฑwรบ7mesh, and sษlilwษtaษฌ land. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and she is the Acquisitions and Poetry Editor at Pulp Literature Press. Her writing has appeared in CV2, Grain, SAD Mag, and elsewhere. Sierra is currently at work on her debut graphic novel. You can find her comics @sierralouieart on Instagram.
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