POETRY
Michelle Hsia, Kirby Marquez
Michelle Hsia, Kirby Marquez
More or Less Moral-less – Interlude
Michelle Hsia
Running tumbling falling crawling screaming crying lying lying lying
The ceiling fan came down during your fight
I was there in the hallway, striped shadow tiger with silent steps
Waiting for your lamp to flicker 1 time 2 times 3 times
Safe!
Come!
Home!
The many nights I spent at your door counting, drowning in clock hands and sheep
While you battled the fever we couldn’t break
I was there beside the holes in the walls that knew each other too well
Choking on my heartbeat when bone bent broke snapped
Now.
Or.
Never.
I was there to see tattered pages arrested with twice-stamped tickets
You held me close, the word “promise” across your breast
Opening timing climbing jumping sprinting crying sighing sighing sighing
Oh, I remember how good it felt when we flew
Voyageurs and Entrepreneurs
Michelle Hsia
We made a prayer for the dead between fishing lines
Criss-crossing like a drunken stranger by the neighborhood park
I’d never cried under stars till I got caught that night
O Mortality!
My homeland, my inconsistent lover – hold me tight
I don’t like to call too often; no, she prefers to meet me in handcuffs
Still, I begged for her beside your hidden silhouette
Sea, sea, swallow me, I cried
I’m can’t be without her, can’t live without her, how do I how do I be myself without her
Just a whisper of who I was before I knew-
The horizon has a crooked smile, someone who loved her too
Is it enough then? That I asked for your safe return?
I was an ungrateful passenger on the ocean floor, Anemone, your melody
Lulled me even in the moments of my demise
We sang between stinging teeth together, you played two organs
And I, I couldn’t help but sing for her
Passersby, the crusading and the crucifixed
I bellowed defiance in their wake, surprised to find my voice undamaged
Wasn’t hers to claim, my heart exclaimed, perplexed
I stood in the night that hung men and laid their eyes in rows to rest
Buried by abysmal secrets skeletons had kept
It was sudden, when the ceiling came down to meet us like a life past
We were rubbed raw by driftwood by then
Two figures collapsing on the shoulders of one another with heads heavy
The sun hit morning, shone on us like lost friends
O Mortality, we were anything but.
Artist's Statement
The poems "More or Less Moral-less - Interlude" and "Voyageurs & Entrepreneurs" follow my most poignant experiences with entropy. The first work captures the feeling of bearing witness to ongoing intimate partner violence throughout my childhood. "Voyagers & Entrepreneurs", in contrast, is a jump to the present and describes the shaky ground with which I have viewed my future as of late due to COVID-19.
Iris
Kirby Marquez
And I’d give up forever to touch you
What saved me when the world could not
When a system of blood and brothers
The intercession of saints and therapists
And I
Fell short of the glory of saviors
A dance partner
Who holds my body against treble
Bass drums turned heart transplants
A textured voice that touches my ears
Sing to me on sunshiney days
Bring back broken memories with rain-soaked melodies
Butterflies and awful dates
Lullabies and nightmares
Words that spoke how I felt
Riffs, licks, hooks and ladders
Lilted words that tilted their heads with commiseration
Bold ones that
Picked up your pain and
Put it on a pedestal
You felt it, the
Belted lyrics,
The face-melting cry:
Yeah, you bleed just to know you’re alive.
Kirby Marquez is a poet and spoken word artist who seeks to combine his love of words with his professional experience as a voice actor and a mental health professional. He explores ideas of love, mental health, cultural identity, and music/pop culture.
Artist's Statement
This piece is directly inspired by the Goo Goo Dolls song Iris. It is a song that never fails to remind me about the necessity of experiencing pain and the power of being true to that pain. Music has, and always will be, an incredibly powerful coping tool for me in my mental health journey.
Kirby Marquez
And I’d give up forever to touch you
What saved me when the world could not
When a system of blood and brothers
The intercession of saints and therapists
And I
Fell short of the glory of saviors
A dance partner
Who holds my body against treble
Bass drums turned heart transplants
A textured voice that touches my ears
Sing to me on sunshiney days
Bring back broken memories with rain-soaked melodies
Butterflies and awful dates
Lullabies and nightmares
Words that spoke how I felt
Riffs, licks, hooks and ladders
Lilted words that tilted their heads with commiseration
Bold ones that
Picked up your pain and
Put it on a pedestal
You felt it, the
Belted lyrics,
The face-melting cry:
Yeah, you bleed just to know you’re alive.
Kirby Marquez is a poet and spoken word artist who seeks to combine his love of words with his professional experience as a voice actor and a mental health professional. He explores ideas of love, mental health, cultural identity, and music/pop culture.
Artist's Statement
This piece is directly inspired by the Goo Goo Dolls song Iris. It is a song that never fails to remind me about the necessity of experiencing pain and the power of being true to that pain. Music has, and always will be, an incredibly powerful coping tool for me in my mental health journey.