Poetry by Ky J. Dio

Flick

Breathe in
Look up.
This baby girl is called a pep talk
Inhale exhale break break breathe.
Plant the balls of your feet to the concrete.
Deep breath now.
Do it with me
Innnnnnnn
Out. 
Exhale and ground ground ground
I promise the loudness will slowly drown out.
Just plant your eyes and swallow it down down from the base of your skull to 
your center.
Carry it sound round round through your belly and your toes and your lips.
Let me rebound whole found. Into your fingertips.
Because your lips are so wholly against mine inside the darkest of the sleepiest
of the fullness of rooms rooms rooms
In the quiet moments when I breathe you in so deep and
We are origami so entwined and we sleep and sleep and dreams dreams dream.
In this prayer bed of holy psalms. 
I worship the night with you.



Indiana

Today I am trying to memorize your eyelids. 
I want to remember what your skin taste like. 
I'm rehearsing the lines of your silhouette. 
I need to catalog the way the sun smells on your kneecaps. 
Memory-Recall the mountains and creek beds of our knuckles. 
Carefully stacked on top of each other. 
Our bodies can fold tighter than origami creases. 
You have smoothed all of my rough edges. 
Your palms/PSALMS swallow me whole
Tasting my hollows and shadows under your love spell. 
I am home. 
And I am holy there. 

​

Ky J. Dio is a host and Administrator for Juniper House Readings, a Slam Poet, a facilitator of creative writing workshops, and the author of 5 chapbooks. She makes recycled acrylic and spray paint art and works as a Jewelry Specialist at a pawn shop. She lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.

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