Adularescence – a poem by Shelly Norris

Adularescence

What can mend the ravenous beetles’ 
work in satisfying its violent hunger?
Iridescent ovals, coppery green shimmers
munch vacancies, render violet
-veined petals to eyelet, so that
sunlight drips through each teardrop bite.

Spring fires streak opalescent pink-gold,  
shroud peaks in charcoal gray smoke.
Sandwiched between infrared and ultraviolet  
rays, we lose the visible blue green labradorite 
play scattering schillers from deep clefts. 
We imagine they travel south robed in clouds. 

On such a day, let us submit to soft pearlescent
selenite said to be self-cleansing. Dedicate 
this day to repairing the rent. Begin to notice 
our second-hand hearts in a whole new way. 
Attend to the blood’s rhythm, dispel myths
of damage as a life sentence. 

Stop rubbing saline drops that sting our eyes. 
Clean stones are rare. Beauty sings out 
from internal fractures dispersing 
refracted light into rainbows from absences,
scars carved by deprivation. 

Born and raised on a farm in Powell, Wyoming, Shelly Norris earned a BA in English from University of Wyoming and an MFA in Creative Writing from University of Alaska Fairbanks. She currently resides in Montana where she teaches liberal arts, communication, and writing at Aaniiih Nakoda College. Her poems have appeared in Gyroscope Review, Poetica, Piker Press Review, Impspired, Rye Whiskey Review, Verse-Virtual, Uppagus, Spillwords, vox poetica, The Cabinet of Heed, and several themed anthologies by Sweety Cat Press. Her first full-length collection titled Hyperbola debuted February 2024. She will release collections titled Dry Lake and Migrations in 2025.