Sarah Kahl  

1990 -   

Poems

Mar 21, 2011

You dance among picture frames. Still faces watch you move. Stars come crashing down on the floor, and you step into the puddles they make. Your shoes turn silver, and bend. Thin cracks appear on the surface, but no one notices. A harp plays itself in the background; your body barely knows how to react. But it moves like a cat and feels more like a tyrannosaurus. Each footfall brings down an avalanche of flesh. But you keep your balance. Even when you try to spin but end up almost tumbling. You silly, sliding girl. But silk crawls up your legs and around your arms and you think yourself a ballerina. Aren’t you too old for such games? But piano keys hammer down, and you cannot hear. A sonata  just for you. Where are you dancing now? In the forest? In the snow? On a lake? I know. I know you are out there, in the universe. Stars swimming past you like a fish you once met in Mexico. Your body becomes a black hole, and everything is sucked in to your heart. Your lungs go first, then your bones, then your breasts, stomach, head, arms, knees, toes. Stretch. Stretch dear. You can see the world from here. See? Getting closer now. Where are the beaches? “If it’s the beaches you want, then you will have them”. Still dancing. The picture frames still hanging. What do they hang on in outer space? Nail them to a nearby planet. Talk about your man in the moon. Your love affair with la lune. La lune qui ne te laisse pas dormir. Ask it why. And it will smile at you. To show your frustration, you dance. And the room floods with your dancing. Your hands are covered in dance. You miss that one person who can hold you while you dance. In his hands, you dance harder than ever, and it feels like ecstasy. What a different tune it is. Silly tune. It might be okay to just be tired for a day. Suffer through a few yawns, perhaps. Careful, little one, with that. Each yawn makes your mind grow heavier and heavier, and how can one dance with a heavy mind?

Feb 19, 2011

Still life pears cover the walls
I walk past them
Down the hall
In a silent cloud

I know the faces here
I know the names
But I have a fear
That they might know me

Blend in with the still life
I am a pear
Retreat from the light
I don’t belong there

I am the silent one
Only smiling
The invisible one
Pass by me

I am a pear
On the wall
Hanging there
Still Life

Feb 19, 2011

You were a steady thing
An always thing
My love thing
I would go to you to be wrapped up
In your arms
I would say your name
Just to say it
But now I’m older
And it’s the same
But not so steady
And now I have a new love thing
A warm thing
He comes to me
So I can wrap him up
In my arms
He is steady too
You two don’t mix too well
Do you?
But
In my life
You do
You swirl together
My love things
My steady things
The things I take for granite

Feb 19, 2011

There used to be a garden
Behind the hedges of a mansion
A mansion sitting calmly
Under the mist of a mountain

In the garden stood a statue
On a pedestal of stone
She stood looking sadly
Looking small and alone

The rain would fall gently
Turning her face a deep gray
Still she kept on posing
As she slowly wore away

No one thought to view her
As in the garden she stood
The vines soon overgrew her
Knowing no one ever would

Mar 28, 2010

It wraps around me
Pulling me close all the time
Warm and gentle, like you

I wish for it to
Last forever, but I know
It will all end soon

So I hold on and
It holds me, like a tree branch
Holding a small nest

The wind sends me close -
The fruit of the tree, your neck
And its bark, your chest

Mar 28, 2010

They don't wake
                       for me
                                 But I
                                         wake for you
Feeling like art
I hang
Tied up in
               knots of you
And you pull
               And pull
                              And pull
And I hang

Mar 28, 2010

You fill me up
And soon I will
Explode
Into a thousand new worlds
Where this feeling
Never gets old
It folds
Deep into my skin
Sinking in
Shaking me
Making me
Insane with the way
You find me
Search me
Play me
Learn me
Stay a little longer
I don’t mind
It’s fine
Because once you leave
I leave time behind
And chime like rhymes that find deep lines
Etched into the surface of my skin
Where you’ve been
Speak again
New friend
Listen to your words bend
Wrap around me
And fill me
Spilling
Filling
Me

 
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