Organic
by Luna Vallejo-Howard

Open your hand
the smell of a smashed silkworm
of a chewed mulberry leaf
of a snapped twig
the earth’s perfume launches
crawls into the psyche
wafts
nostrils scrunch
reminds us of a time
when we slid around on our bellies
ate dirt
or later when we mumbled
along to the crack of fires
shadows tossed against hillsides
bodies thumping
filling holes to pass the time
ringing
out from the music of the spheres
stomachs full of charred meat caught
with our own hands
blood from the kill on the rocks
smelling like the damp ground
and our own wet insides
like the earth’s come
spiraling through time
like a spiderweb
catching and suspending us all
~***~
Luna's poetry is featured in Volume 4, "Stardust."
To hear Luna read, come to our December 8th reading in Santa Barbara.
Luna Vallejo-Howard is from Santa Barbara, CA. She is in her first year of the MFA program in creative writing at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA.