Juliette Sandoval
A Natural History
I
Blasted neon of the new age
Corrodes canvas bleeding earth-tone
the car ride from Vegas to prehistoric swampland
Deeply cut from the earth’s reservoirs
lies fossilized antlers tangled
from the buck who saw the northern lights
when the sky was blown into celestial rays
Tremendous output of Inner Earth
energetic field of bluest night
I didn’t lose, I didn’t find
instead it all sank into the tar pits
Nearby: black painting, white wall
and rows and columns of green light
a sacred mound where the Aztec spilled blood
the wide leaves spawning in shaded grove
Preserved by vegetal matter-
the birth place of the whitest dawn
II
From the North the lark with a pearl in his mouth
and the rivers always leading to ocean waters
Tumbling into white rapids
Moving into canyons
a million years deep in evolution
Once it was all sea and rock
Consciousness forming on the shore
the inner workings of the species
a bundle of wildflowers
Sourced from the edges of fields
where dirt regenerates blasted Spring
Babbling brook breaking over ice
the sky is bluest when the eye is clear
In the atmosphere: groundwater surfaces
Geothermal rings of Saturn
Like a vision stuck with molten amber
a forest is growing oil in the desert
Dead matter turns to liquid gold
and Life flows endlessly like water
III
Golden leaves pressed on glass
Filled with birds
blue eyes, signal the raven
a blush to the composition
forms naturally, tapping at the window
with rapid movement, turning away
living off sunlight
and the sugar chips of peeling paint
The House an extension of dream-life
My thoughts were corroded as they were sanded
left behind to be found in the belly of a bird
––––
Juliette Sandoval is an artist from Los Angeles. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Orpheus, a literary and arts magazine. Her work has been featured in Bruiser, Apocalypse Confidential, and JUNK, among others. You can find out more about her work at https://rabbitsmoon.hotglue.me/ and follow her on instagram @rabbitsmoon24.