[state of emergency]


To honor movement in crescendos of text, combing through ashes
for fragments of human bone, studying maps drawn for the absurdity
of navigation-- what may be so edgy about this state of emergency
is my lack of apology for what I am bound to do. For instance, if I
dream the wetness of your mouth an oyster my tongue searches for
the taste of ocean, if I crave the secret corners of your city on another
continent, then it is only because I continue to harbor the swirls of
galaxies in the musculature and viscera of my body. You will appear
because I have mouthed your name in half-wish, reluctant to bring
myself to you. You will appear for me, because you always do, with
earthen skin outside the possibility of human causation.

Barbara Jane Reyes from Poeta en San Francisco