Michelle Ortega
Michelle Ortega has been published at Tweetspeak Poetry, Platform Review, Rust + Moth, Humana Obscura, Stillwater Review and elsewhere. She participated in ABTP Summer Residency 2023, and is published in its collaborative journal Look Up!, as well as other anthologies. Tissue Memory (Porkbelly Press) and other publications at www.michelleortegawrites.com
A Study in Water (Poem)
I. Night
Moonless night, not moonless the sky
but moon-hidden, the moon inside
me; beside this obsidian pond I sit,
slip my naked body, like quill into well
through the surface; the water the air
I sink under and float above, swallow
night-ink, swallow shadows that hover,
that cover my hunger; from darkness
I whisper through the darkness, search
for what exists, what has been forgotten,
has forgotten, search for words, stirred
only to find them close, so close as if the
hidden moon scrolled them across my skin.
II. Morning
Unhurried, morning embraces me
as the waterlily rises from dark soil
to light, as she rests on the surface
between water and air, as her petals
open toward citrine mist; I, too,
surface-dwell, open—my slow breath
undulates still waters, creates a tide
that bounces off the pond’s edges,
returns to me; in the hush of mind,
tranquility, in tranquility, no bounds
between inner and outer energies;
I am fully present, fully connected
to ancient memory, future possibility.
III. Afternoon
This shallow body reflects infinity,
reflects no-ceiling height behind
gauzy periwinkle, and at the edge
of this shallow body, my body; I
am a silhouette at the grassy bank
undisturbed, undisturbing until
I lean in and graze treetop, reach for
a cloud expecting sticky, expecting
sweetness only to find a breech
in this liminal space; this shallow
body reflects inversion, where above
is below; I am a ripple disturbing cool
glass; in quiet chaos, I ripple the sky.
Note: “A Study in Water” was featured in a 2024 performance of Intonations, which can be viewed at Intonations: A Study in Water.