after the photograph, 'dancing with the giants of the night' by rafael fernandez caballero

i want to smell the scent strong enough

to bring five of them together—

smells like wonder.

i want to hear the medley of their musics

patterning like kids jumping in monsoon

puddles— sounds like chance.

i want to taste the water wine

of their communion— tastes like

a prophecy of how many will die

and beach ashore killed by the shrapnels

as the grenade of humanity explodes.

i want to see them styled by sunlight's

trickledown economy— seems like art

that highs you as the world thrusts you low.

i will touch it with my touch, kinesthetic

fireball slipping through the logic of water

through the turbulence of the viscous layer

the buffer, the inertial, and the wake.

when i touch it let me be a dancer

sloshing around in a bottle of whalesong

let me be the light that flows

through water and becomes life.

~ ajay

14/2/2022