Pride+Poetry Featured Reader Series: Tyler Chick
This week, we'll be posting poems from each of our featured readers headlining the New Cumberland Pride Pride+Poetry event. Join us Friday 7/22 at 6:30 outside the New Cumberland Library for an open mic followed by our main event. Check out the New Cumberland Pride Guide to find out all the awesome stuff going on Saturday at the first annual Pride Picnic!
Tyler Chick is a generalist performer and writer based in Pennsylvania. They teach and perform at the Harrisburg Improv Theatre and are a member of the core writing team on the podcast Sketchy Sketch Sketch Show. She also creates music under the name Same Each.
Time is a Love Circle
When the universe exploded
inevitable as too many angels
on the head of a pin
they grew like gangbusters
insatiable
a child running headlong
a column of fire
All expansion and what's that what's this?
and instant message after dark
and learner's permits
And too young
to be parents
workaholics
a latch-key universe
But the gravity
smelling of honeysuckle
and a grown-up force
the time for stars waking demanding
and they were full of worlds
chock-full like how
a flock breathes one thing and
a world is every bird
But grew apart in flight
be quiet
walk out into
a city of breakups
alarmed under the skin
On the corner
it was distance
it was
bridge and tunnel crosswalk distance
So thin
alone
asleep
Until such time
in old age
a ragged rubber band
could snap a moment
like a birth
And rushing, rushing rushing
from the peak of Everest
came a clawfoot tub
careening 'cross the ice
exhilaration
the universe in freefall
And calling to its members
a bellow of love
because we had become cold shoulders
Too quickly
like a family
Smaller and smaller
Fewer and fewer
An empty womb for all our siblings
to return to
born alive
inevitable
And what's that?
what's this?
The loudest life we've ever seen