I Long to Make Myself Animal Too: Hayden Bowen

April 13, 2020 Kate Belew with Hayden Bowen (Los Angeles)

I saw stars in my sleep but the sky was the ground

gazing at the earth below, strange moss, reached trees and 

cloudbursts of blossoms fell like rain 

and so then how will I sleep tonight?

wide awake inside a menagerie of strangeness  

like a murder of crows 

in a murmuration of light and sound

I saw stars in my sleep but the moon was a bird 

and the earth a crustacean with sharp-witted eyes 

I long to make myself animal too

to howl at that winged illumination 

the exoskeleton of myself is 

a lantern of forgiveness resting upon the ground.