Sky happened today, in the middle of the black night
With my gentle radio, sitting crossed at the computer. Sudden patch of sky!
Loved it, loved it. It was a stretching of arms over water
It was a canopy space above my roof
It was arching like a sprout of water!
Loved, loved it. It was you laughing, over the wires
It was white slipping over night
I imagine hawks holding trees
Twirling the world slowly in strong talons,
Racing pylon cables crashing through the seas.
Every word of yours is exclamation, they say, Look! Look!
I have never been
Happy before. There are better places. I wanted to pack my things,
I wanted the smell of coats, the screeching of wheels
Against the tarmac floor; I wanted wings,
Wings to soar. I wanted to cut the sky in white lines. Teaching
Me new places. There was a smile
a mile wide on my face. A swaddled coat with woollen collar over my dusty skin.
I’m growing thin, I can hear my heart hammering through the wool.
We will one day live off air, just air
In a suitcase.
Judith Huang ’09