Leave Your Eyes Wide by Jodi Lin

(a queer birthstory)

1

don’t close your eyes

breathe deeply

 leave your eyes wide if you can

take this all in

traveling at the speed of life

one breath in

another out

deeply in

hold

then out

in

hold

travel

2

i put my crooked toes in the warm water first

then ever so gently

I let the whole of me drop in

ripples 

in the stillness

still born 

in the still water

i lay my head back

just so

gazing through the night sky into the cosmos

traveling at the speed of life

3

i sit with the ancients

up beyond the clouds

beyond the skies

through to the light of the stars

i breathe

hold

eyes wide

the shift is eternal

no sun

only moon 

and angels

4

a child puts red paint beneath my eyes

over the bridge of my nose to the other side

who are you i ask

5

the child is me

seeing though me to the beginning of time

our island of prehistory

prehistoric dreamers

divinity is our birth right

desire 

our destiny

wonder

our legacy

written 

just beyond the stars