Hayley Litchfield
When your umbrella fits
-Inspired by “To All The People In My Head” from Ana Luisa Pinto’s “The Alphabet Tales”
if dreams were people,
they wouldn’t all fit
inside my head.
too much water
wearing down the dike,
too few fingers holding them back.
to stop thinking, i rush
over the cobblestone alleys of burano
to catch the vaporetto
i watch the ripples
as a girl in the plaza
jumps in puddles.
her small pink rubber boots
match the umbrella
she holds over her head.
i could have sworn
the vaporetto was empty
when i got on the boat.
but a man with a wrinkled
face and a double chin
was sitting right beside me.
he saw my brushes
and my easel and asked
“why is your canvas blank?”
how could i tell him i was
giving up as an artist?
that italy wasn’t the inspiration
i thought i needed.
i mumbled that i had lost
my focus. he looked at me
surprised and said
“nonsense, you just need
a bigger umbrella,” and
handed me a yellow one.
when i looked up to give it back
or thank him, i wasn’t sure,
he had vanished.
i stared at the fabric, opened it up.
taking the brush in my hand,
i began to paint my dreams.
as i walked home, the rain
washing my dreams off the yellow canvas,
i smiled to myself.
i’ll paint them all again
i tell myself, as i watch
the yellow paint and old man’s face
drip down the umbrella.
I Wander Without
I wander above
each fight
in a shimmer
of ethereal beauty.
I drift through the magic
of feeling frozen.
I am almost amused
at the defensiveness my question
sparks. So I stop existing
inside my body
and I become untethered
to the beat
of my heart. Until the vividness
of reality speaks
to me, and my soul
loses its voice. Your eyes search
for the truth
but you cannot begin
to imagine how excruciating
it is to whisper
the answer I am happy without.
Remnants
-Inspired by “Our Lady of the Iguanas” by Gabriela Iturbide
I think God created
the dinosaurs before humans
because they deserved
to live,
but not with us.
We are destroyers
with dried blood in our teeth.
Tyrants
on the hunt for fresh blood.
I carry the iguanas, their remnants,
on the crown of my head,
to remind both
of our species
to be better,
to create life,
not destroy it.
About Hayley
Hayley Litchfield is an undergraduate majoring in English and minoring in Nutrition Education at Weber State University. She enjoys reading fantasy novels and working at the library when she isn't writing poetry.