A highlight of the year
Lying in a tent
during a thunderstorm
I realize the arousing effects
of lightning
I like the solid ground,
such heavy soil, pebbling my back
I consider the adventure
a writing retreat
but struggle to come up with anything.
I read Maggie Nelson's Like Love
underneath a tree
on one of the hottest days of the year.
I get the idea to focus on caretaking
in queer communities
but I don't know yet,
possibilities still swirling.
At first, I turn right
down the ocean street
and run into rotting plants
washed ashore among crushed shells
I resign myself to that being the best
but the next day I turn left
and find warm sand beaches,
people with speakers and umbrellas
I take a few selfies of me in a swimsuit
rolling around on a bright towel
and I admire the hour and a half walk
with my hiker's backpack,
the feat of feet that brought me
to the trailer park campground
where people from Canada speak french
and no one bothers a through hiker
Looking back, I think the trip
was one of the highlights of the year.
A time not of much creating
but of processing where I am in space.
Space time continuum
I don't know what the pipes under the road
look like until construction begins
The spectacle of surgery, numbed in asphalt,
reminds me that I like plumbing more than anarchy
I like routines, promises I make to time,
though there are promises I make to space,
more difficult to keep. That I shall not forget
existing in more dimensions than perceivable.
The ethic of the invisible: to always be peripheral.
Love for dust. Losing the plot. One long bone
of light. I am certain I am not certain, what relation
to the future. Answer email. Watch the parking lot
in between the desktop freezing up. Imagine
summer, the seagulls at the beach, the sand getting
in all the crevasses, difficult to rinse off.
One day again winter will be temporarily over.
But space with all its starry tentacles hooks crater
to crater and has the audacity to memorize each palm
March Penn has been a regular on the open mic at Cantab since 2010 and writes about neurodiversity, gender fluidity, queer relationships, chronic illness and creative community building. During the pandemic, they started DIY MFA/ Self-Educating Poets Network to make literary education free and accessible using online resources. March’s first full-length book, Green Antelope Fire, is out with Game Over Books.
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