said the child
​Sasha Leonard

in awe, I stare at black silhouettes bathed in a pale, yellow haze,
dust of an unfamiliar scent, stinging and brazen,  
                                        & silence 

to follow, broad-backed and stiff, 
may I cry for a scene so resplendent 

in its chilling embrace, a shaky breath free of my lips, 
& lonesome mountains blurred into the palm of the 
ocean and sky, raw with despair, 
                                                                  I am shattered

return to my breast, I call to my heart, 
& as if my eyes rest burning in the brilliance 
of white light that makes divine these eclipsed
figures, 

              I remain coddled in this blesséd moment
              before my death

​