Atarah Israel
inspired by Mary Ruefle’s Kiss of the Sun
and on that day/when the blood orange envelopes those milky clouds/and we all turn our heads in
shame/remembering our unravelings/ancestors’ toes steeped in midnight soil/soil almost as dark
as them/we will unremember and become/that is to say/unfurl our suns into themselves/until they
become something else altogether/maybe starlight/or something like/wax on leaves/the gleam of
our eyeballs/behind our shuttering eyelids/squinting at the sun’s brightness/and all its bloody
resemblances/a togethering of our bloodless vessels
Atarah Israel is a second-year studying journalism, English and Black studies. After years of fretting she now considers herself a poet. Her favorite artist right now is Yaya Bey.
