We are on a train from Tokyo to Kurama Onsen
near Kyoto. You write on the back of purple and gold
origami paper, scenery passes us by like fireflies in the mist.
I bask in the openness of this soft blossom of friendship.
Here your words don’t slice through me like trailing point knives,
carry understanding like a bowl of water anointed with rose oil.
Later we sit next to each other in the steaming bath—talk about
how we learned to forgive ourselves; our hearts fierce as tigers.
In the night, after soaking—you stand in the low, warm
light of the kitchen in your short, black, velvet robe, put the kettle
on for tea. Here a tenderness exists between us that was never
possible in my present reality, where this poem lives. I whisper to you:
This love doesn’t exist everywhere. There are worlds conspiring against us;
there are timelines where we are enemies—forever strangers.
Marisa Silva-Dunbar's work has been published in Surviving Scandoval, Chantarelle's Notebook, Fevers of the Mind, Not Ghosts But Spirits Vol. 2, and The Bitchin' Kitsch. Her second chapbook, "When Goddesses Wake," was released in December, 2021 from Maverick Duck Press. Her first full-length collection, "Allison," was published by Querencia Press in 2022. You can find her on Threads and Instagram @thesweetmaris. To check out more of her work go to www.marisasilvadunbar.com
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