BY JORDAN CAMERON
imagined teacups
how can you see a memory that doesn’t belong to you?
with an earthbound combination of intuition and influence
thin floral air inspires blood / vessels for someone else to speak—
my very own seance
i listen and create a picture of a self i never knew
alone and pointing
know without thinking that she understands something you cannot
ask me to describe the smell of lilac
and i can only offer you the memory of open windows
Ask me about the taste of chamomile
and I can only describe the feeling it leaves in my newly warmed mouth
after it has disappeared down my throat.
I have imagined teacups
pink milk glass once served in your home
I breathe deep and answer with honey crackling from my throat
Redefined ectoplasm
The sweetness smothers me
But I am not afraid of drowning as you press your hands against my shoulders and whisper gurgling I
love yous
Until I return, gasping fresh lilac air
And rinse meaningful dregs from my cup
i came from the garden
“I feel a thousand capacities spring up in me….I am rooted but I flow.” - Virginia Woolf, The Waves
I reach into the soil, searching for bursting seeds
buried deep beneath the surface.
The soft and mealy earth parts around my fingers
and I am tangled in roots.
They return my grasp;
we are inseparable &
Underneath my skin
the roots substitute my veins
Someone else planted me here
Wanting more of a good thing
Heavy-headed pink returns, nodding to sleep in the rain
Long after the gardener left her home
I became part of the design
Like the painting in the stairwell
And the stains on the floor
I was there to see everything else change
How can I go on without spilling any blood?
The ritual calls for a sacrifice
and I oblige from below lilies of the Valley
I rise from the soil, searching for rolling skies
stretching far beyond the horizon.
The warm and crumbling earth clings to my hardened skin
and roots are tangled in me.
Jordan Cameron is a New Englander living in Philadelphia. She is a photographer and writer, exploring and expanding perception. Her work has been featured in Dream Pop Journal, Eclipse Lit, Ghost City Review, and elsewhere. She has exhibited her photography in Philadelphia and Abington, PA and her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. You can find her on instagram and twitter at jordanofjune and on any given night walking around with a camera at sunset.