3 poems
SONG FOR PANIC AS AGITATED STARDUST
Bright light gold entropic mess head
all aglow I tell myself bright I tell myself
gold was made from stars like
me I am stars bright because we
all of us are all of us are gold inside
not metaphorically but the cosmos
formed our guts you see the cosmos
make us float spin and orbit we swirl
in sidereal time on a golden trajectory
all starry and stretched and yes here’s
what they told me that when we fall
it’s because internal collision when
we fall it’s because misplaced heavenly bodies
it’s because agitated stardust because light
is an exploding now the space I am
in is all unbound and unspooling I
am quiet and starry and no matter
what’s good in me I burst however quietly
it’s bursting still and in all dark rooms I am
gold in the belly I am stars in the knees
I am cosmos crashed universe the
constellations inside me rotate
at an increasing speed and when I
stretch my body over the fissures I flood
them with bright with gold with everything
bold light colliding inside of me
LORE FOR HURRICANE SEASON
Already there is loss everywhere already
the floods came and I don’t know this
waterlogged deranged world but I love it still
little bats popping up in the water who are you
can you help me write a love letter today I’m
trying now to treat the world in the right way
with a goodness and yet and yet as the river
says the hour has come but where is the man
to drown for our transgressions it’s time
all that’s left is to find the river a man
throw him in it’s not cruel it’s the way of this
world it’s the storm’s violet sky and that’s
what it asks for blood let blood light blood
sacrifice they say tips the world right they say
when you hear the river sing you might see
animals and lovers leaping into the water
you might see them pulled under by green
weeds you might shake three pebbles from
your shoe and the river might want you
you might see your own body floating
on top of the water if you see your double
there don’t blame the bad year don’t
blame the river bursting its banks find
a man blame the man throw him in all it takes
SONG OF THE UNRESCUED FLOATING IN BLISS
I am writing in the language of the sea the sea
My grandparents crossed to see me born
The sea my father flew above to see me born
Did I tell you he built a ship that could fare
Any sea any storm then let it go the ship
Is my sister and we are filled with water in
The heart I am still completely island surrounded
With that from which I came salt shaped wounds
On the body wrack round the bones crashed
Rocks crumbling bright lichen shells whalesong
I am wrapped in skins I am gilled I am one of them
Of the drowned folk left to sink who arrives in
The world underwater hair rippling behind her
As she drops like a net and if I am if I’m one of them
That means he was able to live because he
Did not pull me from the water as I thrashed wise
Choice now I am floating on my back out to sea
With the seals my ears half-in-half-out geis
Upheld I’m scared of nothing now I’m alive in
A different way unrescued and unafraid of the unseen
Bodies beneath the surface as they float along with me
Carolann Caviglia Madden’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, PANK, World Literature Today, The Stinging Fly, Nimrod International Journal, and elsewhere. She is a Navy brat, the granddaughter of immigrants, and earned her PhD in Poetry and Folklore, along with a Certificate in Translation Studies, at the University of Houston in 2021. She is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.