These are from my "dark years" haha. Trudging unhappily in the snow to the busstop every morning for more of my useless masters. I saw my shadow and wrote this poem.

liongirl

liongirl
morning sun on knapsack back
furry hood on bed head
watching trudging shadow in snow
and picturing that you are


liongirl
not idly waiting but biding
time body sideways
a gash an unshakeable node through icy winds
leaning on metal posts for trees

and then not bussing but bounding
blind body archways
a dash on dispensable road down icy paths
grasping on blackened tarps
for soil the warm rush in the
damp pads of your paws
boasting that you are


liongirl
with lectures for jungles
reined queen of academic
ambiguity more thorough than
a machete
sipping on vending-machine
iced green tea
jaws moving
gum chewing
tongue silent and cinnamon
sweet ears pricked
listening lapping up
from pompous professors
as though from ancient rivers

in lieu of roars
liongirl's throat gets cleared
and another assignment hacks out
bleeding like red pens
crimson marks on
clawing hands searching
in doubts for dens
keeping in measure of the time
between one cry
one fury
one flurry
and the next


liongirl
a dissappearing act in teeth
a grinning Cheshire reaching
and licking like fire laughing
fluorescent and bright
grotesque, carefree, polite
stomach rumbling queasy
bowed down over sushi lunch
inserted whole in muzzled mouth

liongirl kowtows to clocks on campus walls
eyes sharp on curling second hands and
dropping her neck in an easy nod
to a passing friend
starts the way home early
careful it doesn’t get dark
come time to be alone so she can be

liongirl
setting sun on sagging back
the shadow of this hood
wants to be you and
you can tell yourself
that you are
always a step away from your boots
you can tell yourself
you are you are

a_start
Thank you Pendemic.

Pendemic
The imagination is a beautiful, vast and comforting thing at times. Loved this poem.