Let's go back to the beginning

Let's go back to the beginning

Ritish Thala

to the day when a big bang startled the rooster, before the hourglass was filled
with time, in the corner booth of a 4 a.m. Waffle House where first dates refuse

to end, between the years etched into a headstone, behind the farmhouse where stardust
is reincarnated as field mice, under wooden blankets where familiar feet intertwine,

before wars were waged over imaginary lines, to when symphonies were composed
by katydids, before the earth was razed of empyeran iron, along the fault lines

where blood grass defied the embers, before the juice of forbidden fruit trickled
down the chin, between the climbing curtain and the stage, to the start of the season

when the hunter preyed in the bullrush, to when the air tasted like morning dew
and burnt coffee, before the bloodhound picked up the trail, in between a mother’s

prayerful hands, before the judge tore up the verdict, after a supernova severed the sky,
to the horizon’s edge where sin is swallowed whole, before the first words were ever spoken,

to the days when we were suspended in starlight, to when we danced on solid gold.

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Ritish Thala
Poet

Ritish is a poet living in New York City

Photography by Echo Yun Chen