E. Kristin Anderson: I Reached Up
Photo: Joanna C. Valente
I Reached Up
(after Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories)
In the quietest moments of the end times it occurs to me that
my tongue is an invasive species, a cradled disaster, and that’s how
I was spit out. And on the eastern horizon rests a daylight moon
clenching her teeth—she tells me to beat my own heart. Falling down
in this dress becomes a daily ritual. I never considered the hours
crying against the shower wall but when the clouds are coming down
cracks in the tile are something to hold on to. Look—the garden snake
has a heart, too, and she wraps me in her silent kindness. I fall slowly,
gather my body in pieces to build a nest. Try to stay still. The low arts
taught me to move, to keep my feet only where I needed them planted,
to press my body against the earth if it felt like the right place to be.
So all afternoon I’ve been googling Hail Marys for MacBooks while
SUVs speed down this hill and through the school zone. Wait with
a white sheet for me. Wait with a hello. I love this city but I can feel
the sky emptying itself of stars, can feel it crack like this wisdom tooth
that pulls apart at the witching hour. My hand running copper, I reach
for rustling leaves, collect taillights blinking at my window. Swallow
all of it on my own two feet, arms braced against the heavy front door.
E. Kristin Anderson is a poet and glitter enthusiast living mostly at a Starbucks somewhere in Austin, Texas. She is the editor of Come as You Are, an anthology of writing on 90s pop culture (Anomalous Press), and her work appeared in many magazines. She is the author of nine chapbooks of poetry including Pray, Pray, Pray: Poems I wrote to Prince in the middle of the night (Porkbelly Press), Fire in the Sky (Grey Book Press), 17 seventeen XVII (Grey Book Press), We’re Doing Witchcraft (Porkbelly Press) and Behind, All You’ve Got (Semiperfect Press). Kristin is a poetry reader at Cotton Xenomorph and an editorial assistant at Porkbelly Press. Once upon a time she worked nights at The New Yorker. Find her online at EKristinAnderson.com and on Twitter at @ek_anderson.
