Four Poems
Aiyana Masla
To Love
The man’s eyes are closed.
Perhaps he is praying.
I move like a whisper
so as not to disturb him.
I notice the lines in his neck
hush of breath
like a clean wind.
Maybe he is sleeping.
I move closer.
I like to see him like this
in tender repose.
Shiver Flowers
field closes
small feather edge
lungs full
of blackberry shadows
finger twigs
finger branches
green heat fading
out-of-breath-blue
the grass pressed down
where you were
November
Tangled skeleton flowers
frozen mud
The sound of the train
and the taste of stars when I turn
my head in the bare field at night
and open my mouth
Sugar
Wet smell tickling / sugar light beneath the ice
sap rise
slow thaw
melting melting melting / wool
mouth water sky
sweet boiled darkness
strong body / hands at work
day, again.
* All poems from Stone Fruit (BottleCap Press, 2020), with permission from the publisher.
Aiyana Masla
Aiyana Masla is an interdisciplinary artist and educator who grew up in a small, rural town without a stoplight. A painter, musician, gardener, physical theater artist, songwriter, storyteller and poet, her artistic work is dedicated to dignifying the senses, the body, nature, queer eroticism, and emotion. Aiyana is a co-writer and illustrator of the Liberatory Education Team’s (LETS) original curriculum, Teach Affirm Learn Know (T.A.L.K.) Gender and Sexuality for elementary school. She currently lives in New York City, where she is working on a picture book for children, writing anti-bias curriculum, and is a part of Alma Partners, a team doing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice consulting and training in schools. Her chapbook, Stone Fruit (BottleCap Press, 2020), was released in February, 2020. Follow @aiyay_yaeye or @aiyanamasla_art on social media.