it is possible to wake
from troubled dreams a cloak
of slowness sticking to you
as you attend to the motions
of living and find that
weighted as you are birds
are as light as ever landing
on tender twigends swifting
from tendril to grassseed to
pinetip trajecting over the humanbuilt
world to destinations beyond
your limited vision and yet
still feel a lingering ghost
of disquiet mingling
strangely with wonder
like a breath breathed
by lungs turned inside
out and to move on
through the arc of another
day with an engine of yes
not as an affirmation but
as a question
Rae Diamond is a neurodivergent interdisciplinary artist, educator, editor, and environmentalist on Steh-Chass land (Olympia, WA). They are the author and artist of floating bones (First Matter Press), the author of the eco-fabulist Cantigee Oracle (North Atlantic Books), and will continue to develop their next book as a resident at Bunnell Arts Center in Homer, Alaska in November 2026. Rae founded and directs the Long Tone Choir, teaches Qigong and nature-inspired writing workshops, and draws silly monsters. Rae has previously appeared in ptrichor twenty-two. WEB SUBSTACK
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