PRIMORDIAL
Layla Elqutami

In desperation, a schoolboy plucks the wallet from a vendor’s pocket—​
​
men lower their heads in prayer beyond the wall—​

jacaranda branches rain purple—​

where floats the mind of the librarian, endlessly sorting?—​

a seed is digested through the intestines of a starling—​

paint chips into the copper cup of the beggar, empty—​

racehorses at full attention the moment the gun is shot—​

past lovers drive their cars through desert decay—​

blood spreading in sheets into street gutters—​

films of fat solids in the heated goatsmilk are cracked with a spoon—​

when the spell is broken, the alchemist blinks his eyes—​

a lie discovered takes a grandmother by surprise—​

two girls weave dandelion stems atop the tower—​

a cave becomes home for a wounded hunter—​

woman guesses at meaning through garden pebble distribution—​

the deer shatters through a lightflashed windshield—​

an orange tree hangs down over the southern highway—​

no one will be salvaged—​

you ask where we are headed— 

pocketing the fruit peel—​​

​Layla Elqutami (Pomona '22) is a poet working in the realm of dreams and specters, trying to figure out the subconscious impulses of reality.