Guide: A Reading - D. Keali'i MacKenzie

“Night has taken flight,” the Oracle said. 

Darkness unfurled, stretched obsidian past horizons. 

You remembered 

the cool-damp basement. 

A boy inhaled your crotch. 

You at his.

Both of you grasped, tongue-tied your desires. 

The breezed roar of birds beat the air—drowned all other sounds. 

Stars blurred. 

You walked into the room 

and knew his hands would rub 

your edges hot. 

Because of him 

you love when five-o-clock shadow 

makes your lips tingle. 

“Do you know which avians arrive on morning’s border?” the Oracle asked.

As if to answer bluebirds landed all around you, their feathers silken from night’s afterglow. 

It was spring. 

Peach tea still sweet on your lips when it hit. 

You wanted him and all that entailed. 

Dawn. 

A blue chorus rushed into light.

Originally published by Breadcrumb Scabs, June 2009, under the title “Oracle Guide”

D. Keali‘i MacKenzie is the author of the chapbooks From Hunger to Prayer (Silver Needle Press) and The Mana of Salt (Backbone Press). A queer poet of Kanaka ‘Ōiwi (Native Hawaiian), European, and Chinese descent; his work appears in Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures, Poem-a-Day, Foglifter, Failed Haiku, Shadow Moon Journal, and Prismatica LGBTQ Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine. He currently resides in Ko‘olaupoko on the island of O‘ahu.