Kali Norris, New York City, USA
The Broomway
The best that can be said for the decade is we survived it:
marble floors and metal pins, knife turn on a century we’re wasting.
The ground used to outlive us, and now
we live a thousand lifetimes in one.
The ocean will have us back.
Our ancestors walked the floodplains of the english channel.
I love anything that’s sinking,
and time moves too quickly now.
Delirium on the Gulf
That world was a dream:
lake or doorway,
all green and orchid pink, maypole ribbon,
enthroned on an altar to rain.
There were good things even in the grave,
always something to be grateful for,
always something sweet as mangoes waiting on the doorstep.
I think a quiet life would be better.
The loudest thing the thunder over the sea.
There are plants with no root systems.
None of us were born here, but
some deities belong to the land.
To wake with the sun,
it must rise every day of the year.
Kali Norris is a writer and poet from New York City. She was the recipient of the Carole Rose Livingston Award for poetry in 2018. Her poetry has been published in JMWW and Q/A, and her poem Soliloquy from the Pyre is currently nominated for a Best of the Net award. Kali has a BFA in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College, summa cum laude, and completed National Novel Writing Month seven times. When not writing, she can be found in the library, the park, or befriending cats.