The streets of Cambridge are made for this.
Their astigmatic stop-and-go. Their short stretches
of thoroughfare. Their winding and swirling cowpath
loop-the-loops, like rollercoaster cables after the last
sidecar chaser. No reason to go over 25 anywhere.
No Right Turn On Red signs at near every stop, wrenching
from your slack grip those teeth-clenching decisions.
Your stomach sloshes with the car’s turning. Each red
light a reprieve. Each green another crest and descent.
Wind fingers your hair through the open windows, calls you the living,
and the black streets, more awake at this hour than in noon’s flat light,
show their shine to you alone. The very young shine too now.
They are walking in threes and fours and eights, but never in twos
or in ones. They balance on tall-heeled shoes and on one other.
Nothing can stop you, not the sad, red-haired baker beginning his shift
as you turn that accustomed corner where you buy your morning coffee.
Through the huge, dark window you know he must be smiling at you,
one of your angels, like the invisible host who guide you now
through this Byzantine carnival attraction, dodging hubristic bikers
and stopping you behind the white line each time. And how can
you not believe it? And how can you not know there are forces in play
and reasons that certain heartbeats are chosen to be beautiful and alive?
And when in the morning you wake up safe in your own bed in the
sheets and the blankets that smell like your singular body’s acrid sweat,
you will not remember this apocalypse of grace and mortality. You
will only clutch your side, shake your head, look yourself in the mirror,
and breathe again and again lavish and repeated thanks to whatever
oblivion chose again to spare this trajectory of you.
About the author:
Jade Sylvan is a writer and performer living in Boston. Her first full-length collection of poetry, The Spark Singer, was published in 2009 by Spuyten Duyvil Press. Her first novel, Backstage at The Caribou, was published in 2009 by Ray Ontko & Co. She has performed across the country, appearing as the featured performer at The Cantab Lounge (Boston), The Green Mill (Chicago), and The Nuyorican Poets Cafe (New York City), among others. She has also lectured and facilitated writing workshops, most recently at Indiana University and The University of Cincinnati. Her favorite yoga position is Crane Pose, and she never learned how to whistle. She is currently at work on a second novel, an album of songs, and more poetry. You can find her at www.jadesylvan.com.
