1. Solace
By Melanie Lech
a pecha kucha after JavierPérez
[MANTA]
My mind was a canvas that yearned for a taste of paint.
Untouched by desires of the flesh, I found solace
In your words—each syllable wrapped in a gentleness
That time whispered was hard to come by.
[LEVITAS]
My mind was a glass bowl, walls transparent.
I saw no need to shelter my thoughts, for here
Was one who coddled each drop that rested inside.
To be naïve was to be his.

2. [LA TORRE DE SONIDO]
I built a structure in which I could keep every memory alive.
Organized according to importance, depth of meaning,
Substance, its shelves filled to the brim with pieces of
What I now recognize was an illusion of us.
[UN AGUJERO EN EL TECHO]
The ladder was broken but I kept climbing. Above was only
Pearl. Together we were pearl. I reached towards it as though
It could be reached,and convinced myself that falling was
But a fluke, not worthy of address.

3. [NARCISSUS]
I remember the day we broke. He snaked in, Truth, like
A great serpent, tightening around my chest until he suffocated me.
I watched as they fell, each delusion a small mouse that
He consumed on his way out.
[MUTACIONES VI]
There was red. It pooled in from the outside and
Seeped into all that was exposed,every pore
A victim. I watched its slow annex and finally saw,
With disbelief, that we were never made of pearl.

4. [CAPILLARIES II]
I was not still, but I did not move. It was like breaking apart
Into tendrils only held together by that from which
They could not break away from.
It surrounded me like blood from a fresh kill.
[CORONA]
My mind was paint that yearned for a canvas.
Realities picked at me like a bird tears at its prey.
Though broken, I vowed not to let them take my soul
Or my belief in a world of pearl. But

5. [ORIGO]
It felt like submersion into helplessness. Trying to
Rid my heart of the red was like trying to bail a fast-sinking ship
Without a bucket. I turned to only she who could help,
Time, and she once again whispered to me,
[EL BAILE DE INFINITO]
Telling me not to fight. I looked at her in wonder. She said
To overcome a pain was not to push it out, for banishment
Only makes the soul unfurl. The only way to heal was
To understand that we are all a bit of red and pearl.