Stella Lei

Olympia

Ekphrastic of “Olympia” by Nicoletta Ceccoli

These days, you are birthing alternate universes
and swaddling them in baby blue, combing

their hair so the strands lay soft against your hands.
You gather each timeline and sculpt

them into the mirrors of girls, mold faces
so bloodless dawn shines through, fit

them with eyes full of empty
ponds unscarred by a stone’s weight.

U-1 will crown herself in the dust that limns
windows before a house can crack awake.

U-2 will collect the bones of broken birds and carry
them so light they float above her hands, unsnapped.

U-3 will stand at the gorge as the river hurtles by, close
her eyes against the wind. U-3 will dig her toes

into the crumbled edge of rock. U-3 will not look down.

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Stella Lei's work is published or forthcoming in Honey Literary, Milk Candy Review, Okay Donkey and elsewhere. She is an Editor in Chief for The Augment Review, she has two cats, and she tweets @stellalei04. You can find more of her work at stellaleiwrites.weebly.com.