Nova – Lana Bella
A concentric witness to the same
gravity that kept seasons fed,
she saw red in the autumn foliage,
slick fall with seeds like a lei of
Darjeeling. Time lost her of cloud
and sky on water, flashed wet
a half-translucent sun on a still river
bed. She was this, delirium and
memory, slender bone buttressed by
spine, hip and fibula, untouched
by light for years. Suppose she was
flesh made to be born like a golden
note waiting to be nova, and lathing
of air and nothingness will reach
her as if through liquid, fitting her
for a lifetime between hot atmosphere.
Suppose she can let her limbs die
as stars and leave behind the scarlet
curves of night flowers, she’ll rise
over water and drink from the lips of
anemone, acicular to the dark moon.
A four-time Pushcart Prize, five-time Best of the Net, & Bettering American Poetry nominee, Lana Bella is an author of three chapbooks, Under My Dark (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2016), Adagio (Finishing Line Press, 2016), and Dear Suki: Letters (Platypus 2412 Mini Chapbook Series, 2016), has work featured in over 500 journals, Barzakh, EVENT, The Fortnightly Review, Ilanot Review, Midwest Quarterly, New Reader, Notre Dame Review, Sundress Publications, & Whiskey Island, among others, and Aeolian Harp Anthology, Volume 3. Lana resides in the US and the coastal town of Nha Trang, Vietnam, where she is a mom of two far-too-clever-frolicsome
