DM Lichen

Reality

Push your head under the water;
Count the layers of ocean,
Baby blue toddling to royalty,
Falling deep into blackberry dreams;
Remember how many worlds swam in between.
 
Lift your gaze high now;
Draw interweaving rings and try to time
The turn of all those lights,
As many as your eye can squint into vision;
Remember them when they won't remember you.
 
Test what metal mantras can peer into you;
Call out one caravan trading red life
With your thirsty limbs
Or one arm of lightning rolling
The boulders of all you tell yourself you are,
Or chide one rogue who plots
The fall of the temple and
The flat note that profanes the choir;
 
Look at it all going round,
Having gone round all this time
Without your notice.



DM Lichen is a Queer, African-American poet and writer from Cincinnati, Ohio. They have poetry shown in Aji, Nzuri, and Club Plum. They have earned a B.F.A. in Creative & Professional Writing from Maharishi International University and work as a submission editor for Dark Onus Lit/Press.