Grey and Rose Contest Finalists

F


matutinal/vespertine

Bailey Grey & Danielle Rose

                     Finalist of the 2019 Collaboration Contest

matutinal: i know now / the ghosts

in the trees can fade / their moans

give way to birdsong / dew drips

golden from the leaves / i can

only breathe / when i awaken

without mourning / these stars

easily acquiesce / winking out

behind sunshine / as i am slipping

out of bed / i forgive / my

transgressions / scars / read as

stretch marks now / inevitable

growth / let the dew evaporate

now / humidity rise / a vessel

for my prayers / beads of sweat

i taste the salt / upon my skin

                            tell stories / remember how bodies

                            drip with daylight / & these things

                            like the evening’s brightest star / glowing

                            dream / as if we could only gape askew

                            like so many fireflies / i want to wake

                            alight as supernova / they claim that they

                            like these dust motes / hide themselves

                            inside a frozen pond / i am not

                            idealization / i am so many

                            ideas concerning a body / like these

                            avalanches / under snow-tumble is

                            a way to tunnel through / i want to be

                            thrown around by waves / salt

                            dripping / vespertine / meaning in gloom

                            & i am a star chart / tracing an open sea

Bailey Grey is a bipolar software developer living in Virginia with her grumpy old cat. Her work has been published in Crab Fat Magazine, Dovecote Magazine, and Ghost City Review, and she can be found on twitter @BaileyGWrites.

Danielle Rose lives in Massachusetts. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in The Shallow Ends, Pidgeonholes, Barren Magazine & Glass Poetry.