"Astral Ancestral Experience" by Nam Das
I Call Every New Leaf on My Lemon Tree “Grandpa”, by Kate Wright
spend my mornings with it, turn
the TV on, throw open the drapes,
and position it just how it likes
in the morning sun.
I drink coffee. It drinks
water—room temperature,
straight from the tap—nothing
fancy. When the woman
on TV says something funny
I laugh and my lemon tree
rustles its leaves, sends air bubbles
up into its Aquaglobes in agreement.
We’re friends, me and my lemon tree,
and I love to see it flourish,
have been taking pictures
of the tiny new sprigs of green
on its body and sending them
to my human friends. Look,
I gush, look how he’s growing,
as if they care. I touch
the tiniest piece of new-growth
and it breaks off in my hands.
I apologize, promise my lemon tree
next time I will be more
careful, will wait
until it’s not so fragile--
I’m just excited
it made it through the winter
when my grandfather did not,
know that because his hands
germinated the seeds, potted,
and tended this tree, my tree,
for 17 years, his DNA is in
the soil, absorbed by the tree,
in its new life.
the TV on, throw open the drapes,
and position it just how it likes
in the morning sun.
I drink coffee. It drinks
water—room temperature,
straight from the tap—nothing
fancy. When the woman
on TV says something funny
I laugh and my lemon tree
rustles its leaves, sends air bubbles
up into its Aquaglobes in agreement.
We’re friends, me and my lemon tree,
and I love to see it flourish,
have been taking pictures
of the tiny new sprigs of green
on its body and sending them
to my human friends. Look,
I gush, look how he’s growing,
as if they care. I touch
the tiniest piece of new-growth
and it breaks off in my hands.
I apologize, promise my lemon tree
next time I will be more
careful, will wait
until it’s not so fragile--
I’m just excited
it made it through the winter
when my grandfather did not,
know that because his hands
germinated the seeds, potted,
and tended this tree, my tree,
for 17 years, his DNA is in
the soil, absorbed by the tree,
in its new life.
Kate Wright received her BA/MA in English from Penn State. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing and Environment from Iowa State University. Kate’s work has appeared in or is forthcoming from Rogue Agent, Ghost City Review, Rust + Moth, and elsewhere. Find her on Twitter @KateWrightPoet
Nam Das (Filipino, b. 1989) creates open-ended visual stories by arranging figurative elements into an assemblage forming a central idea, an idea that plays around Jungian archetypes of the collective unconscious or mythologems observed throughout history. He uses a limited palette of four colors in his oil paintings. Also called the Zorn palette, it's composed of: Titanium White, Cadmium Red, Yellow Ochre and Ivory Black. Nam began working as a full-time painter in 2019.
