NADIA SENDS ME A VIDEO AND I DON’T WANT HER TO DIE

by Lauren Traetto

As if she knew I had dreamed
Of her, Nadia
sends a video
of a red tide at night

it glows
delfine

I cradle the ocean
in my phone vitreous
container for the moon’s shoes
a pen scrapes static
in bioluminescent water
flippered banana draws
atomic cornflower
into sick
waterways
unprotected

we walked over pointed hillsides
my home’s eucalyptus
brings back her grandfather in Libya

lost or brilliant
we are

dancing softly
in the mutilated corn

I love her
how can we live
is the earth a body
is the universe

a painful freeze
drooping slowly
out of protected sweet
lemon blossoms
fall from my tree forever

I will walk
the famous bridge alone

squinting at the writhing
blue

Sleeping Beauty of Los Angeles
mixed media
Geoffrey Geiger