Edahrline Salas ROOM OF JANUARY for KC While white paws held high bid me good fortune, Orange rays by the lantern made of paper Cast two shades of gray. At four, the umbrellas circle about my head Though the rain is ghostly this year: I dream of one. Cold, slow afternoons do make Perfect times to listen to wind chimes. The sand rake falls to the ground A quiet sound. NO FLASH ATTACHMENTS Come as you are, Kurt said. In spite of that waxen frailty. Take comfort in yourself Though no one comes to call. I then realize how the exposure demands light But I live in a museum of dreams Of lores and promises Of transformations and translations Where at the entrance is written The words no flash attachments please. To protect the work from damage is Why intense brilliance is forbidden. Such thoughts invade my privacy But there’s never any integration enough to make sense of the journey And all of it eventually comes to, comes to Nothing. REGIONAL A feeling erupts now and again— the kind that uplifts so suddenly and takes in that buoyancy above it all and transcendent in full suspension resisting gravity like cottonweed, I am too soft to fall It's a regional temper, fleeting, with boundaries constantly redrawn The cartographer is within and is always on the move You know the topography of your emotions Discover lands that make you happy. PHENOBARBITAL when you're excited feeling you want to fall, fixing yourself to go down hard swallow me take all of me or up the dosage not to knock that yellow wet sign off the floor swallow me take all of me this I can offer it's all to still your brain gone wild save you 12 hours at a time swallow me