Tatiana Clark

Ephemera in F Major

I.
We find ourselves witness to murder, of ebony

plumage lulling in passage with
wind, playing shadow spells
on trees. Barkskin makes ribs

             of our fingers as we press
          into the forest, hidden
         in the thickening
        twilight      baited

             & deer-eyed. We watch

II.
what it means to be human
in their descent:

            bird bones &
           rat guts &
            fern bodies

split by
            lightning & other violence—

threadbare branches
shouldered by tar &
            weighted feathers. God’s
            urgent animals. We see our deaths in theirs,

III.
in the gathering darkness. This, we can’t help. We have
their primordial stomachs, this hunger
curled by two heavens: one of constellations,
the other of earth. Our skin      softens
at the touch; dirt & wood whisper
under our nailbeds      lusts after
our blood      mark us sacrifices
for the stars.

IV.
In our brevity, we search

for the meaning of our lives
in the plight of after-lives.
Coaxed by creatures

            who bare their teeth to us
           from the shadows, so black they seem
            to swallow the moon. We raise candles

to these fated rituals, chase metaphors
lined in poetry. Shape our breaths
in defiance of the

feeding      until it is done.

________________________________________________________________________________________
Tatiana Clark is a writer and moon enthusiast. She studies English/Creative Writing at the University of South Florida and is the current Managing Editor for Thread Magazine, her school's undergraduate journal. Her work appears in Trouvaille Review and Orange Blush Zine. You can find her on Twitter @tatiianaclark.