The Third Lesson
by
Radiance Angelina Petro

I have a place in the air. My liminal life
rarely asks how. Marked by depressions,
it is safe to say my soul follows angles of separation,

and what aliveness I have slopes inwards. Beyond
the look of the world, and the vastness of the sea,
I still search for stages of widening.

The great imaginer has stopped wanting
to be known. Trapped in a circle of sorrow
the midnight sun has some to rest in tendrils of smoke.

The felling wedge is driven, and the third lesson
is the one about free thinking being surrounded
by devils.

The night metabolizes the light, and I sleep
it all away. There are eight million strikes of lightning
a day, and each one eaten by the ground.

The Kaleidoscopic Day
by
Radiance Angelina Petro

“The future is possibilized.”
-Satre

The turtle follows a plain and quiet path
as it drags its tail in the mud.
The dragonfly skims the water and lifts
the minnow away. The owl knows each feather.
Storms follow the eyes of the wind.
The Andaman Islanders tell time by the scent
of flowers.

This is no time for indifference. Keep track
of your shadows. Return to amazement.
The world needs you, and there are no small
doings. Our tongues have been snugged to the roof
of our mouths long enough. Stand on tiptoes again,
and reach for something—anything higher.
Our first conversations are when we can look
each other in the eye and see the kaleidoscopic day.

The Day it All Ends
by
Radiance Angelina Petro

The cotoneaster tree lives only a few years,
and dragonfly nymphs stalk tadpoles
in the underwater grass.

Uncramp yourself. The swing and sway
of life—the undiscoverable. So many possible
eternities.

The mutual aid of time and motion,
the wobbly electrons, the miracle of identity—
let something else be the custodian of the calendar.

Time is alive and well—maintained comfortably
in the acorn. Look at us—spread every which way—
full of no longer moments and not just yet moments.

Shadows bend into light, light bends into shadow.
The exaggerated now is drawing you on. The day
you outrun the tortoise is the day it all ends.

Once and For All
by
Radiance Angelina Petro

There will never be a once and for all. Time is full
of lakes and hills—so many things stimulated by light—
the commitment of roots, the looseness of summer,
the way a baby unfurls her hand.