In the Sun

Irina Vladi Levis

at dawn go back
my pallor sins in unclaimed sallow
in longing skin aches
in golden sun’s torrent
sing hymns and praise

old Salem smolders
in cold rain
in opacity of dawn
pale burns and stings
soils

in silence
hear women screaming
banshees
in bright morning
yellow creatures
with stringy hair
on burning logs
calling to their god
pockets turned out
begging

in mist and dingy shadow
dimness cools
mama’s snow princess in white gauze
and tinfoil snowflakes
lilywhite
and burnt she said
heat stifles and
stuttered breath
stops
under the bed
low to the ground

eyes closed
senseless and defiled
windows locked to the blue day
in an empty house
sun covered eyes
bright and hot
and I can’t see up
and I cling to the phone
wish it was you next to me
in me and over me

wake
wrapped in this blanket-smell
of frightened sweat
I could kill you
yes
and nobody would know

in an empty birthday
(under the bed low to the ground)
everyone sleeps
and I run from the house
down the stairs and around the corner
to the phone booth
covered with leaflets of Japanese girls in blond wigs
naked and spread eagle
I dial my mama
(on this empty birthday)
in this dark street
and she tells me about dawn

she says at dawn go back
for pallor’s sinning
and pallid features lie of daylight
in unclaimed sallow
waiver before me and stumble
parch my skin
in rest

Irina Vladi Levis is a student at Santa Monica College