Signs and Carriers
by Belly Full of Stars
This recorded performance of ‘Signs and Carriers’ was recorded live on April 20, 2025 at Electric Arcadia in Sewanee, Tennessee.
1. Fleets
Fleets of dewdrops form,
march across the sea of sky
Raptors gather for their sunset
...
Is there anything deeper?
Do I want to go any deeper?
...
My eyes follow branches
like tributaries
The flap of a wing
sudden conflict
As the sun casts a gradient glow
...
Unsettled, we are all
even
in our most familiar places
...
The tightening night
coils into its form
With pinprick stars
piercing its cover
...
Wind and chimes sing their chanting sine
As the vultures squabble,
Restless
still
in beauty
...
How do I take the coming form?
[
Do I hide in the night
under the brightest star
(that would blind me
but give me warmth?)
]
[
Do I cease to squabble?
]
[
Do I sit still and fade?
Atrophy as all grows dark?
]
[
Do I move among them?
]
[
Do I choose something
other?
]
Dark wings bat and fly off
seeking new limbs to nest
In the heights, I am here
moving
coiling
(breathing)
(becoming)
ready
2. Signs and Carriers
Diamond ring
The moon is a carrier
Playful with
the humming stars
Ceding space
with cloud’s tendril fronds
As the rhythmic, industrial pulse
of metal wheels on metal rails
squeal and whine by
Cycling
The thrum of one engine starts, another passes
trumpeting its surge
from rest into motion
The moon changes signals
from blood red to milky white
3. I am old like the cherry tree
so soft and smooth in parts
craggy and ancient in others
dangerous-looking
I like
unbalanced things
limbs stretched as talons
holding blooms
so soft and tender you could cry
translucent, luminescent
pink
next to gnarly joints
my mouth says one thing
but I mean another
rooted and reaching
noticing each bramble stretch
I’ll happily lay my truth down
for a lie
(cutting with wooden teeth)
founding
in labor
(in largess)
(in heady revolution)
in spring’s breath
I come down to rest
...
but
I am moving
I am coiling
I am (breathing)
I am ready
Quarter Notes Magazine 