Crisosto Apache

Summer 2023 | Poetry

Random Thought Patterns / Anatomy of a Lipid Cell

it is Tuesday the 5th of September

— what seems like a train speeding by at 20 ft

 

the printer finishes the last page

— the sun is already out

 

a light beam drudges in

— source unknown

 

the sun starts red and then casts an orange shadow 

a staunch projection of the future mounds in the desert 

 

the shadows sway and merge

— fast and then faster

— printer diverges the first page 

 

in a continuous dream, a vehicular memory emerges

— a molecular swap meet

 

de-glu-ti-tion

— swallowing down, swallowing deep,

— a deeper gluttonous act

— an act or progress of swallowing

 

as-sim-i-late

— within the chest, starts a new day.

 

sun-rise, in a continuous dream

— people enter and exit

— each eccentric in their light

— odd mingling behavior

— eclectic  

 

love is rough, in a continuous dream

— no clouds in the sky

 

in a bathroom

— nighttime painful urination

— dreams during incarceration— nonsense

 

in a continuous dream

— extra-terrestrial, space, UFO probe

— nulls the cranial stairway on a high horse

— a golden saddle

atmospheric acid on the brain

— another cranial decadence

 

wedding bells, in a continuous dream

— why not?        

 

sway and swish, in a continuous dream

only wanting to be held

— through conceit, through caress 

 

squiggling, in a continuous dream

— among coils, pipes from some basement

 

gorgeous & amp, haughty in a continuous dream

— a body from a stretcher unleashing Orpheus

 

gathering orphans for an Opus

— a late-night musical persuasion

— not with three, love, coupling, or sheets 

 

cars race at night in a continuous dream 

— no carburetors, chains, or coyotes howling in heat 

— some travel in packs and others travel without

 

Vaughn, New Mexico, in a continuous dream

— a small town diner, a note says, that was beautiful

 

stars may bloom, and cars will swoosh

into a dark facade and affected by a sugar high  

 

it/I/you/he/she/is/am/are/will be hiding in a seat in the desert                                     

 

a lonely old man wants the company of the youth

steel brush scrapes unkempt tires

and only for one evening, there are tears

 

using an illustration of a cattle herd

and a drawn carcass full of colors

 

darkness is faster than all fingers

— anxious and speeding lying along the highways

 

wandering far in a continuous dream 

— an audio file with an annoying tapping beat   

— tapping on a surface with no direction

— a radio dial emitting static

red wine in a continuous dream

— a stoic bright moonlight serenade

 

one hour remains in a continuous dream

— until my/our flesh crawls together tight

— words cannot express enough

— the infatuation concludes at dawn, 5:00 am

Crisosto Apache is originally from Mescalero, New Mexico, on the Mescalero Apache reservation, and currently lives in the Denver area with their spouse. They are Mescalero Apache, Chiricahua Apache, and Diné (Navajo) of the Salt Clan born for the Towering House Clan. They hold an MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts and are an Assistant Professor of English. Crisosto’s debut collection is GENESIS (Lost Alphabet). Their second book recently released is Ghostword (Gnashing Teeth Publication). They are also the Associate Poetry Editor of The Offing Magazine, and their profile can be seen on the Poetry Foundation's website as well as their website www.crisostoapache.com.

Crisosto recommends “Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow”, Henry Louis Gates Jr., “Genocide of the Mind: New Native American Writing”, edited by MariJo Moore, and “Sovereign Bones: New Native American Writing. Volume II”, edited by Eric Gansworth.

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