Vasiliki Argyris
The Real Blue Light
it took the somber cafe
and the kid rubbing his eyes on the bus
to make the butterfly milkweed
come out
of my own eyes
(no rubbing)
the white daffodils grown in grasses
so precious about it
in the wrong places on a single hill
at the flat university
he was rubbing his eyes
because they had been so still
he had to move them from the outside
he had to take them in his hands to make them see
fashioning them in place of where they would be
if they ever moved, ever saw
what a blue sky
what a big bus
what sharp thistles if
anything here were green
Lesson
she walked with the shape of a horse
in between her knees
except there was nothing
to ride here
but speculation
i said to her pick up a bow and play
she said saliva made me i wont touch that
paper money that makes shapes in your heads
i fiddle with the latch on mine
house shapes come out
car shapes
career shapes body shapes vitamin shapes
child without a gallop in my step
i whimper i get on her horse i ride
she says eat like you would lick a head
of cabbage in a village
squint like you would at embers
love like the horse that carries you when it
could run
απο τα σαλια της οικογενειας γεννιεσαι
Vasiliki Argyris is a writer, visual artist, and worker living in Philadelphia. She attempts to find the threads that bind history, poetry, and walking the earth. Her work has appeared in Voicemail Poems, Pamphilet, and Works & Days. She has a musical project with her partner called Etherea Meeting.