2018 / poetry / author

N.L. SHOMPOLE

 

BROWN EYED BOY FROM JUPITER
…

I met a brown eyed boy on
the corner by the local coffee shop
last Wednesday. We talked about the weather
storms in September / red eyed Jupiter
what the future / looked like / thirty years from now

He asked me
where my home was / why I looked so weary?

I told him,
my burdens are all I have left / my heart was swept away
by a hurricane / last November / and I don’t remember much
from the time before the storm

I told him
my home burned down in the fire / and I carry / all my belongings
in my rib cage / sometimes my dreams are full of echoes / sounds
from the bodies / of dying stars

INTERVIEW WITH A WINGED CREATURE
…

Sometimes
I think that we
were tragic,
unsustainable.

i am curious / can you tell me / more? 

We wrecked worlds,
& dreams. He & I,
we wrecked
hearts.

NIGHT-WATCH II
…

1

June. At dusk the ghost of your breath still echoes through here. I can’t stand the bed, overburdened with its heavy memories, so I sleep on the hardwood floor with no covers. I startle awake at three a.m., the moon winks its half-lit face through the lace curtains. I make tea, unable to fall back into sleep. Gulp it down in burning mouthfuls and make my way to the bathtub, something about the cool porcelain finally lulls me to sleep.

2

In the morning I pack my bags until I am sticky hot. I leave your dusty clothes and all my belongings (my wedding dress, your tuxedo) in the living room with the suitcase hanging open. I can still smell your cologne. Noon, the gas stove in the kitchen is burning.  What once was tea evaporates, a phantom rising out of the teapot.

3

I leave the front door open. In the bathroom, I strip. Sunlight pouring in and cold water in the bathtub, I scrub your name off my skin until I’m raw. Until I’m speckled red, until the smoke alarm goes off.

 

Night Watch II was first published in WORDS DANCE PUBLISHING NOV:2015

HALF LIFE
…

I am a building,
skin made of embers
and ash, half
collapsing.

Yesterday
a wildfire burned
through me.

IN YOUR ARMS
…

In your arms
I swallow the rain,
and just for a moment
I swear
I swallow the entire ocean, whole!
I swear,
I am drowning.

In your arms
I swallow the sun
and just for a moment
I swear
the sun has set inside me.
I swear
I am burning.

ANATOMY OF THE MOON
…

Do you remember the night you taught me the sky? I stared into the dark on a clear night. You drew circles around the atlas of the moon, I asked you if you loved me.

These, you whispered in the dark, these craters filled with darkness are ancient seas. Barren, they wept their water into the heavens, this is what would happen if you left me.

If you stare hard enough you will see other things. With a finger you traced lines into the sky, battle grounds where titans fought, the sea of tranquility, forgotten shorelines.

 While pointing at the moon you said, I am an ocean full of storms, you are my salvation. Do not let the darkness swallow me.

 
 

…

n.l. Shompole was born in Kenya. Her work has been published in over a dozen print and digital literary journals. Since 2013 Shompole has published several collections of poetry including the acclaimed poetry collection Lace Bone Beast: Poems & Other Fairytales for Wicked Girls, released in 2017. Besides writing, Shompole is also an artist and photographer who sometimes shows her work in galleries and other fancy places.

WHERE TO FIND N.L. SHOMPOLE: WEBSITE


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