"Aesop’s Hydraulics" by Rena Su
i) For Aesop’s Rabbit
with observations from the tortoise
O you chase the wind
and shear the ground beneath your steps;
wind-up ligaments unwinding and unfurling
sowed into the horizon
you can taste the iron
on my lips
and the jealousy in my strides
the weeping cedars across my face
and the legato in my footwork
i can feel the laugh exude from your molars
the mock escape your hydraulic bones
it wraps tight around me like cashmere
but i starve away the infection
as you become an alloy with sleep
i continue to carry my spine
like sisyphus
across the melting skies
O i squint my eyes to see
you as you become
more of a fable
ii) For Aesop’s Tortoise
with observations from the rabbit
the compass woven into my skull
hums towards the finish line
i lace myself into a blur as you fade into
an asphalt memory
i convey my run in magnetism towards
a setting sun and i marinate myself
until i dissolve into the
creekside with the tailwinds
when the moon asked me why i ran
i said that i have been struck by an arrow
that hollowed my heart
so i pray to an agile religion to patch away the abyss;
memorialize my ribs
you are chained to the earth with
your clockwork feet and woe
to your wayward steps
i leave my body beneath a rotting tree
to run faster again within
some fever dream i once had
Rena Su is from Vancouver, Canada. Her debut chapbook, Preparing Dinosaurs for Mass Extinction (ZED Press) will be released in summer 2021. You can find her on Twitter @RenaSuWrites
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