from As the World Falls Down

Jayme Russell

                                        ⁂

spin me mechanical all clicks and angles twirl me
around this box rounding and rounding in one place
in one tight space 

                                        ⁂

the tower through the mist the hedges turn and repeat
get me out of here the fairies nip my fingers the worms
leave blue tracks on my skin

                                         ⁂

we are all slanted
back at the beginning 
feet pound on stone 
feet pound through leafy grass
feet pound over the drawbridge
feet pound up each flight of steps 
feet pound the carpeted throne room floor 
she’s found him again but 
arms fold wings wrap cloak into feathers 
you’re not falling     
everything’s dancing

                                        ⁂

no fruit for the king no worm for the young girl clock
strike me down throw me to the ground make this
spinning settle 

                                        ⁂

and there comes a great 
rumbling a low pain across the hip 
bone a sound of weakening yesterday 
was full of synchronous golden  
spirals but today flattened cold 
body stormy and the birds have fallen
straight down into the wet soil with a 

smack while no one was looking

                                        ⁂

never once considering how in the world she was going to get out
again

rose as easily as a  (    )

                                        ⁂

polyps budding eyes — 
half-animal half-plant 
reach     out their arms and fingers 

a very deep well of hands plenty 
of hands 
plenty of time
to look about
to gain direction too dark to see     look 
the sides of the well  echo 
dark hums never found in the forest 

                                        ⁂

I mimic the sound of your voice I      fall right
*through*

choose to fall *never* come to an end        
                                                                  drifting into

                                        ⁂

you are my key unlike any door that locks pull the
rope and ring the bell chime the call across the city I
am coming to the castle
what’s said is said don’t speak to me sing to me sing the
lyrics to my favorite fall I come from the trees and the
moon and the night you can’t catch me the ground
can’t catch me small prisms of glass accompany me
they spin and flash they remember where we came
from they remember your voice

                                        ⁂

I am spinning inside 
my (crystal)
hair pinned with silver in the dark

                                        ⁂

didn’t know what time it was

lights were low bird in the mouth fed in dark cages around the clock
wings broken back with delicate fingers loud sound of distress 

fade


wave of         (((((cosmic)))))

I can see his light affects the chorus premature bodies at
the edge of the forest burst with song too early we
need more darkness chewing bones little tails sticking
out of mouths
    
locked

waiting in the sky

                            to fall into ripples

 

my moon in freefall cushioned only by song in the upper atmosphere 

                                        ⁂

soar over this forest     keen eyes on water 
isolate a single sound without blurring notes singing over 

blue blue electric

blue                        all the stars in the sky were falling 

                                        ⁂

your singing enters in I’m falling for it falling through
the starry black ocean fall with me float gravity free as
the night moves on my hands my hands slip down
and down through the cold burning and searing
catching of stars 

                                        ⁂

everything’s dancing
the (crystals) 
spin and flash
float across the city into the trees

            (          )

                                    (          )

silver leaves stuck in hair
the surface of the (crystal) twists our faces
candles burn a distortion
in laughter and sound and sight

                                        ⁂

shadowy background your face preys on the more
passive  grin full of birds but no singing trapped in
one pose and down swoops wide open wings always
attacking always hanging in the corners shadows over
the eyes and the birds swoop over the pale nude
bodies with hands held out for protection and behind
your eyes the thin legs stand forever perched and
twisted a black silhouette watches the lips waits for
them to speak and beneath the shadows a hole in the
wall peeps light into your focused eye 

suggest            oh so very delicately

suggest this to me

                                        ⁂

the gilded clock spins wildly and here we are dancing
locking eyes and arms spinning faster forgetting that
outside these crystal walls an entire world falls

                                        ⁂

and the wings stick
together one mass of movement
all wingtips pinned edge 
to edge and stitched together one 
quivering wave of pure nerves

                                        ⁂

the world bursts into pieces
shreds to confetti bits
a face full of glass
a city folds
on top of itself

                                        ⁂

crystal confetti we are always young on the planet of
emerald seas and cities ruby berries rolling from our
mouths we give gifts of mirror shards

                                        ⁂

this ground is a movement of light thousands of slick
black wings and as they move out of focus they
shimmer like diamonds like bits of static on a screen

                                        ⁂

if you do not preserve the body
will fall into dust and no one will remember
the true color of your plumage or the way 
you held your head stiffly tilted your neck
with curiosity
floating up above                                listen to yourself
this world
in fantastical dress falling forward in time
the body falls to the ground into the ground
ground down to dust 
downwards is the only way forwards

                                        ⁂

and as the world calls and as the world spins you will
sing inside of me

                                        ⁂

(((((blur))))) and my hands go
numb from too much               pressure
leaping is not for the faint
heart in the throat

                                        ⁂