[GUEST WRITER] Sandstone Legs, By Charlena Kea

sandstone legs

high tunnel fog in October

my mind feels far away

chicken kisses in the AM

I still think of you everyday

just another farm girl's wishes now

can you keep my winter crops warm?

I'm thinking of cold blood and cracked skulls

sunberry stains on my right forearm

your cattle line the streets there

still waiting for my passage by

school explosion on the drive home

half legs around the bomb stove fire

just a cluster of red dots to all of them

I hope one day they'll see

pawns and prey and bugs alike

maybe it's all we'll ever be

I'm just the same as you, though

soft heart but iron bones

incense smoke lures me closer

I'm scraped pure on sandy stones

deafening when I see them hanging

these hollow iron shells

they let your kin bleed out there

damned the rest to living hell

I'll wade through murky river depths

please wash my red hands clean

I'm desperate, I beg you every night

erase these things we've seen

my likeness sells postcards on the roadside

beckons to me while I pass by

I'll walk away with nothing left

she'll never ask me why

school, her brother, my hair in her hands

the ducks her father leads home

relief in knowing for certain

she'll never be left alone

I'll thank you a million times over

for our black hair and piercing eyes

eight thousand miles between us now

sharing sun and clouds and sky

potholes lull me half to sleep

grind my sandstone legs to dust

I say I'm not leaving you here this time

loving you 'till I turn to rust

Charlena Kea is a Cambodian-Chinese American designer and farmer from Portland, Oregon. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Oregon with her Bachelor of Architecture and has since spent her time making odd things like buildings, zines, and mobile applications. She currently can be found frolicking in pastures with her sheep, wreaking havoc on horseback, and tending to vegetables. She has lived in Italy and Spain and has a heart for traveling and learning languages. She always has her sketchbook and micron pens in tow and is on the lookout for her next adventure.