Stairwells
by Lina Chang
She is the guardian of the Cliffside:
a mass of colors, surrounded
by elaborate systems of roots that morph into trees
reaching out their arms as if stretching
into the rays of a dusky morning’s air.
Color spark off as violets and
crimson as if fighting
a war between the darkness and the light.
But peace can be found,
where the face emerges as Aphrodite
rises from the confusion that is
the sea: the tranquil face
ever gazing as the protector of the valley.
Out of place, found among her brothers of a different make,
she sighs and allows her gaze to drop- knowing of displacement,
existing as a misfit- yet radiating all the more.
Her face is the only constant in the rapidly
shifting, her body a mere wisp of a thought that never was.
Colors that meander, lacking the cohesion and
desire to make solid among the void.
Wind dances through the stairwell,
catching even the smallest of movement.
Yet among the chaos, between the formless form of the darkness
and the dancing of the void, she can be found unwavering;
for she protects, she watches,
she shelters, and she waits.
She is the guardian of the Cliffside.