Poetry Suite by Amber Flame — Part 1

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“Every day now, reassure them: it is wonder.”

Poetry by Amber Flame

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                            yuanfen                         
Chinese (v.):

                      1. to meet because of fate             
2. to be inexorably drawn into an interaction with no destined outcome


animal me can taste the puncture;
you coming. how hip and rib
bone popped threaten
crackling staccato skin.
jaw in slow your smells on my tongue
stretch; lay thick in wait.
teeth unsheathing.

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                            forelsket                         
Norwegian (v.):

                  1. catching one’s breath in throat when thinking of a lover                   
2. mundane life being overtaken by euphoric glow


each day now, reassure them: it is wonder.
everyone scents me the sun, all the stars,
primed. obtainable. how they shine so brightly.
flushed husk.
beloved, overgrown tongue.
sapped bones.
we begin:
eyes brimming with each other,
bruised mouths covenant
of wet and blood.
swollen in greeting.

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                            cafuné                         
Portuguese (n.):

                  1. the act of fondling the head or neck intimately                   
2. to entangle oneself in a lover’s hair

spin me your dreams.
curl your distant
longing round my thighs, you, fallen
to the
road
maps 
of my
skin.
answer this:
i seek
will i be adventure
in your hair’s
where you go tangled vines.

mouth nomad;
you, oasis pooling

with every rise
fall
 

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                            naz                         
Urdu (n.):

                          1. arrogance in being the object of one’s affection                   
2. the surety of feeling completely adored

suckle

quench

return

lover calls me space and sky,
charts constellations.
across my limbs

in this terrain of riches i
am oceanic.

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Read Part 2 of the Poetry Suite here.

Header image courtesy of Agent X. To view his artist feature, go here.

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Amber Flame is an award-winning writer, performer, composer, activist and educator who works extensively with both youth and adults. Amber Flame’s work has garnered artistic merit residencies with Hedgebrook, The Watering Hole, Vermont Studio Center, and Yefe Nof. Flame’s writing has been published in diverse arenas, including Winter Tangerine, Nailed Magazine, City Arts Magazine, Mom Egg Review, The Dialogist, Split This Rock, Black Heart Magazine, Sundress Publications, FreezeRay, Redivider Journal and more. A 2016 & 2017 Pushcart Prize nominee, Jack Straw Writer Program, Artist Support Program, and New Media Gallerist, Flame was also a recipient of the CityArtist grant from Seattle’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs. Amber Flame’s first full-length poetry collection, Ordinary Cruelty, was published through Write Bloody Press in 2017. Flame served as the 2017-2019 poetry Writer-in-Residence for Hugo House in Seattle, and is a queer Black single mama just one magic trick away from growing her unicorn horn.

All of the above poetry is from Flame’s forthcoming collection, apocrifa, with Red Hen Press.

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