Inside | Outside, Elizabeth Costello & Maw Shein Win Collaborate 

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Outside 

 

All trees are beautiful, my neighbor says

when I declare my love for the horse chestnut

 

conker, horseshoe, buckeye

remember a tree home

 

Inside

 

Fiber, thread, web

Waxwing home, cocoon 

 

I touch the velvet

underside of petals soften

 

Outside

 

Eye to eye 

with the hummingbird

 

electric emerald

branch trail

 

Inside

 

The folding

sea, tranquility

 

can see underwater

with my middle eye

 

Outside

 

Tree language

Is known to us

 

sparrows sleep

in felt nests

 

Inside

 

Windowsill

as lip

 

I slip behind

silhouette

 

 

Outside

 

A shadow cast

Is not my own

 

stencil of shadow

reflected on lawn

 

Inside

 

The two leaves 

of the peperomia 

 

shimmer & breathe

in cloud forest

 

Outside

 

Crow, why do you

watch me like that

 

fog hovers above

the tomato plants

 

Inside

 

Thick dumb

forehead

 

sweat behind

lobes, close

 

Outside

 

Salt and oil

in the air

 

on the skin

lick, swipe

 

 

Inside

 

Fog the glass

breath is beads

 

tangle of hair

on tile

 

Outside

 

Stink bug folds

Into crevice, sleep

 

under tents some

damp, some dry

 

Inside

 

Personal size

my haze

 

memorize the

fur, the fuzz

 

 

Outside

 

Thunderclaps and rain

drizzles, I drink ginger tea

 

slip of days, warm

worn memory

 

 

Inside

 

Been inside all

day, I forgot to look up

 

Tuck chin to chest

small heart spasm

 

 

 

Outside

 

Cloud presence,

fog bank, cranium

 

cold skull, I touch

the sound of bees

 

 

Inside

 

Jars of fig jam

I twirl in the kitchen

 

swirl a spoon of it

on a round toast