Who will step over this Hallowe’en? / A Cento composed by Kirsten Miles
with line selected and written by Katerina Canyon, Sam Calhoun, Luka Erausquin, Ellen Fergusun, Brett Gastineau, Joy Johnson, Nicoletta LaMarca-Sacco, H.T. Reynolds, Gabriel Phillips, and Colin Sturdevant.
Listen—
they are piling up in my throat like unspoken prayers
featherless birds beating their wings
against a cage of ribs
how the grain curled
up and off like golden minnows
into the stream of night
I throw the windows wide,
call into the dark of the Salish Sea
you too watched something without speaking
how the moon sees Jupiter rising, and decides to set
hangs like a draw knife,
I never was the kind of being to create light
with my bare hands but I sang it from my ribcage
and handed it out willingly
your soul served like soup bones
simmering onto paper, blooming
minding its teeth while being sweet
I don’t want new wars to watch/read/listen to
I thought I would rather die whole
nightly, I am re-spooled back
an ether, a mouth unknown to itself
the city settles atop your tongue
our sorcery showers the galaxy
brooms to the moon, charms to falling stars
that circled a twilight sun to rise with the aurora
even dust once had a name
trees bend down to sing inside of me
Glory be to all of us: finding signs as if they were
