Signs of life
Big black dog walks along beach. The night
is also a dark thing. Ocean glittering
like it’s supposed to. & the streetlights.
Light has always been a sign of life.
We are obsessed with stars
because they prove we’re not alone. Tiny cities.
Sometimes, I can’t tell whether or not I am dead.
Now is one of those times. I wait
to see bodies, & when I do, they’re moving.
That is how I know. Sometimes
I bruise myself so that I can look
more like a god.
At night, you can see his skin
if you look up. This is what I decided.
by Talin Tahajian
is also a dark thing. Ocean glittering
like it’s supposed to. & the streetlights.
Light has always been a sign of life.
We are obsessed with stars
because they prove we’re not alone. Tiny cities.
Sometimes, I can’t tell whether or not I am dead.
Now is one of those times. I wait
to see bodies, & when I do, they’re moving.
That is how I know. Sometimes
I bruise myself so that I can look
more like a god.
At night, you can see his skin
if you look up. This is what I decided.
by Talin Tahajian
Talin Tahajian grew up near Boston. Her poetry has appeared in Salt Hill Journal, Indiana Review, Kenyon Review Online, Best New Poets 2014, Columbia Poetry Review, DIAGRAM, Washington Square Review, and on Verse Daily. She serves as a poetry editor for The Adroit Journal, and recently co-edited Poets on Growth (Math Paper Press, 2015). She is currently an undergraduate student at the University of Cambridge, where she studies English literature and attempts to assimilate.
