Diana: impending by Ian Ellasante

Diana: impending

 

one month with no shot

and Diana is calling to me again

one month

in which the girl is unbraiding herself

into me again

no shot in one month

and she’s come flooding back

flooding backwards

 

she is returning in loose layers

in the color of a womb and

the color of a heart

 

one month

and mood swells and inflames hot

like a busted lip like a crisis

while elsewhere i sleep sweet

like a saint retiring

at the tops of my thighs   i am sleeping soundly

like a saint dreaming of miracles to perform

 

one month

and my voice is as thin-edged as a wafer

turning like a corner   knuckling into my neck

 

one month

and not one sterile arrow

has pierced my skin

she is a quiet hunter still

she won’t let me forget   i swear

that she holds the quiver

 

i know

to some places there is no going back

no going again       no going against

 

and Diana

i don’t know   where you go   when you go

i don’t know   where you’ve been dusky girl

you and your moon all dusted with day

in any light

Diana realize: i might not recognize you at all

 

Poet and artist Ian Ellasante is originally from Memphis and has made Tucson his home since 2007. He has published poems in Currency, The Volta, The Feminist Wire, and Hinchas de Poesía. Ian has recently shared his poems at the 2015 Black Life Matters Conference, the Trans and Genderqueer Poetry Symposium, and the Stjukshon Indigenous Reading Series.

photo credit: Tiffany McPeak