By Amy Simone Piller
1.
New Yorkers walk quickly
Something is always
about to happen somewhere
I can almost
taste the
Hurry hurry
don’t miss this
moment
empty stomach full
of cheese puffs
2.
In a dream
we choose to meld minds
Each time our center selves
further defray
Not a dream
we are all heat maps
Color wheels
showing how much we feel
If the absence of color is black
I want light
Exposed more
open doors
Worry later
about balance
Now teeter
be close
3.
If [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
Let’s meet at the blank
and smile like tourists
at monuments imbued with where
we read wrote
drank smoked
skipped kissed
Let’s sit on the steps
and recollect moments
late hazy unsure
about who we were
careful to misstep
and avoid remembering
too much
hope
-
A mom fancy footworks with her daughter
the heels of once was on stage
We are never the same as we were
though we were there together
Hope [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
Seagulls line up by the water’s edge
spaced out like lifeguards
watching for prey
Centuries of battles engrained
who stands where
give me my space
codified into evolution
emblazoned DNA
I need a piece of horizon
this morning
Just a small glance
to share with you
and no one else
I need to hold my knees
and you to know
not to interrupt
I want
you to be you
me to be me
we [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
listen to the love song
of languages
on the subway
listen to the latino boedga owner
who gave my Korean friend free coffee
every morning her first year teaching
when black students at first called her Chink
and later loved her
listen to the Yemeni corner store owners
who bring us children who climb
cafeteria tables like jungle gyms
having never been to
school so unsure [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
I almost asked
but thought it too much
like eating the parts of a peach
you don’t reach when slicing
“Let the pit beâ€
one voice says
And the other
“What a wasteâ€
The taste of juice
still sweet on my tongue
By Amy Simone Piller
1.
A fight on the subway
over stepping on each other’s shoes
Bystanders staring agape
Me shouting
This is not happening
2.
Sounds of a child sobbing
in the stairwell
Just told her uncle needs a liver transplant
and there are insufficient funds to act
What is she to do?
3.
Can I
operate in this rigamarole?
Can I
melt into a soup of words
and not make sense
for a little longer?
4.
Like [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
Relax
this is the part where
cartoon characters charge
villains fall
and your muscles ease
at my caress
Tight shoulders
do not make you warmer
and the end of the day
comes anyway
Though sometimes it does
not for all
When separating egg whites
some things slip
Messes are not simple
which is why
we wonder what to wish
come the middle of the night
unsure about dreaming
often at almost
again awake
Except sometimes
when you [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
Like air craves
a container
I would like to be held
Like soda canned
I would like to spill
not just rush
but slow molecule slide
of forever distance
nothing planned
Sadly solid I simply ask
where goes the unsaid?
Silence might like to say
What did you mean?
but it only hangs in the air
Dew at which we marvel
too rushed to comprehend
Physics’ limitations
so stark
It can’t be
just this
Please [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
I.
If I am a box
and you are a box
vertices stretch between us
Lasers guarding a gem
But light beams slip
over one another
to make morning
And goslings flock before us
as if we know the way
to show them through
Though we too
are lost
in the milieu
II.
When vectors cross
meant to reach different ends
the landscape changes
The dock moves
as the sun sets
The moon moves
as night [...]
By Amy Simone Piller
You make me think
If there can be light without fire
maybe there can be fire
without burn
Make the places
sun rarely sees
heard
Worry not about the ship schedule
or where tracks lead
If the dock goes nowhere
and no ship shows
we’ll float
time travel
pre fluorescent
in the dusk
skinny dip
Take me
where the grid
grinds to a halt
into the sea
railway ride me
into the ocean rush
subsumed [...]