Illustration © Helen Nicholson
in the strange glaring light
I knew this was america
though a part I’d never been to
or the precinct of a familiar city
that I’d never seen
the glow of the place
was a green halo
and I felt my desire to
exist become so hot
that I nearly fainted and fell
onto the tarmac
nothing was happening
each silver street gave itself up
each tree lined boulevard glinted
with an ashy sheen
each bodega had an open door—
silent
but smelling of rosemary oil and incense
french fries making signs in pools of gasolene
escaped tropical birds perching on church
billboards
just moving along the road
just breathing
brimmed with an impossible kind
of meaning
that I couldn’t spell
something to do with orange juice
and being permitted to be alone forever
I took a fur coat off a washing line
and wrapped it around me
I knew america was cruel
and I knew that I would live
with extremity like a virus
I knew that my very living
would be a punishment for others
Rebecca Tamás
Rebecca Tamás is the editor, with Sarah Shin, of 'Spells: Occult Poetry for the 21st Century', published by Ignota Books. Her first full length collection of poetry, 'WITCH', came out from Penned in the Margins in 2019. It was a Poetry Book Society Spring Recommendation, a Guardian, Telegraph, Irish Times and White Review 'Book of the Year,' and a Paris Review Staff Pick. She is a former winner of the Manchester Poetry Prize, and the recipient of a Fenton Arts Trust Early Career Residency. Rebecca currently works as a Lecturer in Creative Writing at York St John University, where she co-convenes The York Centre for Writing Poetry Series. She is represented by Emma Paterson, at Aitken and Alexander.
This is a response to Serendipity & Synchronicity, our first Spiritus Mundi theme.