It is midsummer storming
velvet black locust petals & crow feathers & the stone-blue sky is tearing itself ribbon-like
in hunger. My mouth cradles elongated vowels
like vitric cicadas. We daughters of the displaced know the thunderous music of the body
scarring, carrying, caressing, creasing, easing. We molt
our own thousand-shadows & the thousand-shadows of our mothers like shimmering husks,
like miraculous seasons. We digest ourselves
& ripen into mouthless howls. Dear amniotic knowledge of the grape leaves of creased hands, pitch-tune
the instrument of my gut. Is a translation
ever the fresh lake of a mirror or always a million kisses of fissures? At dawn, here is a vigil song: Tényleg ismerlek
téged ismerem a kezeidet, ezeket a törékeny pókokat. Valaha tényleg ismertelek, ismertem a gerincedet,
ezt a követ, ezt a fonott követ. Ismerni foglak még egyszer. Az idő hővé, magánhangzókká, visszhangokká nyúlik.
Ha tényleg ismertelek. Megengedted volna nekem? Megismerni egymást, ha csak, ha csak, ha csak. Olvadó
álmainkban, almás álmainkban, almazöld álmatlanságban, irgalmas, mint a madarak.
Mackenzie Polonyi is a Pushcart-Prize-nominated paprika poet, storyteller, educator, and children’s section specialist bookseller based in New Jersey and New York. Her debut poetry collection, Post-Volcanic Folk Tales, was a winner of The National Poetry Series. Her work may be found or is forthcoming in Barrelhouse Magazine, Crab Creek Review, Palette Poetry, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Tupelo Press, Diode Poetry Journal, Driftwood Press, Bennington Review, A Velvet Giant, Quarterly West, and elsewhere. Mackenzie earned her MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Cornell University, where she was a lecturer.