baby
by t. zoEy benally

she sees starlight
for the first time
“THAT!” she says
points a small, slender finger
up into ten o’clock skies

eyes and mind unsullied
by Barbie, Mother Goose,
and goddess Stewart
she receives waves sent from suns
light years before she was born

she first heard leathery whispers
from golden leaves hooked to trees
what secret message caught her
three month ear & was absorbed
by her blossom mind?

her natural mind collects ancient details
acknowledges original prayer drone
reverberated through cosmos
keys mercifully left
on the banks of this dark ocean
our manufactured world

darning socks
by t. zoEy benally

many items can be mended
welded back together
provided there exists
sufficient technology, tenacity
and a lemon drop twist of luck

rejoining a soul
bridge between supernatural & mortal
fuses sharp fractures, rock CRACKS
belts that bond rock molecules dangle
tangle in the wind
NO—not mere superglue
to keep time continuance only adjacent
but actual earth diamond creation forces
to recapture this millisecond
at this longitude, latitude, elevation
triangulated instant in time are required

other processes are simpler
water remixes readily
gregarious energy spins
grease the iron skillets of sundry interactions
interpretations of relationships

reconnection of two halves
of a heart is never quite as successful
difference being the profusion of mini-universes
solar system circles overlapping
thought droplets of water waves lap out
heat applied would fry all organisms

balloons, rocks & cigarettes
by t. zoEy benally

eleven hours a day just isn't enough
his slow march from east to west
sparkling arch through nitrogen, oxygen
gaseous fields on earth's margins
it just isn't enough

but how do you change the sun?
perhaps an organism more diabolical?
perhaps a creature more integral to the ecosystem?
perhaps if i were actually a planet?
shoot! i just need my own magnetic field

i hear there are places, though
where the sun shines, rubs fingers
of heat over earth and her children
24 hours a day
Alaska is what i heard whispered
from pine to juniper to greasewood
to sagebrush to me

so i let it all go
rubbed static sticky on balloons released
to make their way back to where their contents
are no longer lighter
wrapped it in cigarettes and gave them out
to transients under I17 and Peoria
lit and smoked, dissipate into ambient air
placed it on rocks and skipped them across the Rio Grande

i let it all go
to be the fittest, to survive
spores and seedlings released to fly wild
surf a jet stream around the world
hurled up through troposphere to stratosphere
i blow kisses to nimbostratus

concrete cracks
by t. zoEy benally

how many rubberized soles
densely packed polymer molecules
rubbed raw on ash rock squares?

aerial view of asteroid craters
crinkled and crunched rock bits
granite smashed by chain gangs

constant canyons
miniscule except to ants
fine element striations mark the eons

plate tectonics playground
slow-mo sumo earth giants
smash & push one up and over