Jessica Grim

Untitled [Myanmar.1]

In their forgiven state

     flocks      soar

loose ideas

riding  currents

      only slightly

tied     to this     or any

      life

        can you find it

in your heart    

     friendly    reminders

of mortality        slip on the wet

concrete floor  while

running         eyes

         on the gates

of  home

where when done does

the soul       even go

the

     bad luck    

of so many species’

Mawlamyine Dusk

Lovely quiet of the outage

disrupted by loudspeakers

powered by back-up generator

if your eyes when skimming

a dictionary land on “pelagic”

The Andaman is a marginal sea of the north- eastern Indian Ocean bounded by Myanmar and Thailand along the Gulf of Martaban, and separated from the Bay of Bengal to its west by the Andaman and the Nicobar islands.

ions too polite

to collide hold

court

           honorifics

as they flew gave off

a melody

crows and gulls, or neither

The Gulf of Martaban, also called the Gulf of Mottoma, is an arm of the Andaman Sea; the Sittaung, Yangon, and Salween – also called the Thanlwin – rivers empty into it.     

tree full of fruit bats

on the corner near the post office

and the colonial clock tower

civil twilight

nautical twilight

astronomical twilight

The Salween river, about 2,044 miles long, flows from the Tibetan Plateau south into the Andaman Sea. Despite the river’s great length only the last 90km are navigable, where it forms a modest estuary and delta at Mawlamyine.

wearing  the insomniac night

the darling dawn      recalls

      when the sky

hums       you know

your future

Pigeon in My House

There’s a pigeon

in my house

I am going to open

the balcony door, go for a walk

and see if when

I return there’s

a pigeon      in my house

Jessica Grim is one of the founding editors of Away Journal. Due to the pandemic, she faced an early return from her stint as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Myanmar. She is the author of several volumes of poetry.