Chaos Theory for Beginners
Listen there is yet a chance at madness to become
the lioness in a field of moon lilies For words to push
up from the known deep grow gills form feet wing
through water’s skin We talk of doors but really
we are only breaking walls Listen your eyes are so sky
in that hurricane dress the hugest two moons I’ve ever
Everything’s happening so slowly fast it’s hard to discern
who needs repair and who is just mean enough
to survive I mean isn’t chaos merely a loss space-
defined the names of all the birds floating up
like sheets freed from their lines and aren’t we all
standing here on that flattest piece of earth shielding
our eyes in our stormy clothes lilies at our brows
stirring a little heat beneath our skirts just jonesing to rise
Previously published in Tahoma Literary Review.
Poet and photographer, Ronda Piszk Broatch is the author of Lake of Fallen Constellations, (MoonPath Press, 2015), Shedding Our Skins, and Some Other Eden, (2005). Seven-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Ronda is the recipient of an Artist Trust GAP Grant, a May Swenson Poetry Award finalist, and former editor of Crab Creek Review. Her journal publications include Atlanta Review, Prairie Schooner, Fourteen Hills, Mid-American Review, and Fire On Her Tongue: An Anthology of Contemporary Women's Poetry (Two Sylvias Press).
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