ChendaWrites: Restless
Restless
The sky feels smoky today. Leaves fall
in shades of gray; these twenty-six shades
of charcoal, and the winter wind is cold, and I
feel restless. My arms feel like fingers feeling
like starfish clinging to exhume essence. Of earth,
of wind, and of fire. These electrons firing in my
brain, in underwater caverns, making patterns,
giving grace as I pray, for this, my meager body;
frail for all the blood, and the veins, and the skin.
And what, if anything, will tomorrow bring? No
guarantees. No heart but my own. No song sung
but the one I sing alone. Like whistling, like a
hummingbird inside, no one else can hear.
© 2010-2025 Chenda Duong
Note: “'Cause I had a dream I was carried on backs
Of a thousand green birds
And they carried me to a place without words
And there was nothing, but there was everything.”
— Rilo Kiley: “Let Me Back In” (2013)