I dream the jogger killed in the park


During the blackout we held the stars
before they fell a fire rain marked the skin
our bodies formed a cross on the cool cement
Carmelita will you leave I said
there is nowhere she said
the dark was a big balloon on her face
she held ten moons at her fingertips
the boiling pot hissed a crab escaped
felt through the night with its tentacled eyes
freedom moves sideways comes in forms we know
like a crab in the city headed for the sea
I had to burn to keep it from boiling

I dream the jogger killed in the park
runs circles 'round my bed I dream
chupacabras look through my windows
I dream and count worlds formed
on the cracked ceiling paint
there is a circus it is also Istanbul
I mumble Carmelita there is a place or two
she cannot hear me

Carmelita is at the graveyard
stabbing her heart with grass blades
the compass has one cardinal
it points to the path that gets us closer
I climb the mango tree after the monsoon
rain I reach the golden sap
the drowned mosquito the drunken moss
my left foot slips
to join Carmelita to be on cool cement
to fall through the blackout to become a star
to wave at Carmelita from up there
to see the lanterns in her mouth
the fireflies dancing in the shape of her head
to prove there is a place or two
look there goes a crab she said



Yanira Rodriguez is an MFA candidate at Syracuse University. Other recent work can be found in that other amazing literary journal NightBlock.