SurVision Magazine / Sage Schilling

Celebration of the Woke

after studio, my body becomes an eel
floating in seablue ice. i pop. plastic
tubes crack for fluorophor, halos buzz
through summer skies, dark tar rinds
are husked from my eyes. my organ
is a leaf, flaking aubergine, no longer
waxy green but eternal autumn. this is
when they said i would bloom. they
knew my smile would be mischievous.

yesterday, my waitress played a role,
adding a "hippie protecting the sea bees"
as she set my juice with a green candy
striped cardboard straw on the table.
swept away, i felt so normal, average.
i wanted to perform, have a line, self-
congratulate myself for a vegan meal
in a place of dreadlocks and sunshine.
this depressed me, but it shouldn't.

i have no story, no past. future is illusion.
truth is fusion. the true Self is no-self.

Sage Schilling lives in Colorado. She teaches research methods at Oklahoma State University and holds a Ph.D. in Religion from Claremont Graduate University as well as an M.A. in Poetry. Her poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Crossways Literary Magazine, Dodging the Rain, Abridged, Girlhood Journal, Waterford Centre for Teachers Anthology of Writing (2018). She is working on her first chapbook.

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An international online magazine that publishes Surrealist poetry in English. Issue Four SAGE SCHILLING Celebration of the Woke after studio, my body becomes an eel floating in seablue ice. i pop. plastic tubes crack for fluorophor, halos buzz through summer skies, dark tar rinds are husked from my eyes. my organ is a leaf, flaking aubergine, no longer waxy green but eternal autumn. this is when they said i would bloom. they knew my smile would be mischievous. yesterday, my waitress played a role, adding a "hippie protecting the sea bees" as she set my juice with a green candy striped cardboard straw on the table. swept away, i felt so normal, average. i wanted to perform, have a line, self- congratulate myself for a vegan meal in a place of dreadlocks and sunshine. this depressed me, but it shouldn't. i have no story, no past. future is illusion. truth is fusion. the true Self is no-self. Sage Schilling lives in Colorado. She teaches research methods at Oklahoma State University and holds a Ph.D. in Religion from Claremont Graduate University as well as an M.A. in Poetry. Her poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Crossways Literary Magazine, Dodging the Rain, Abridged, Girlhood Journal, Waterford Centre for Teachers Anthology of Writing (2018). She is working on her first chapbook.
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