Find Us
When they find us
we’ll be long dead.
When they find us,
the chosen or rich frozen,
faces intact,
they’ll wonder why
we’re a people that don’t move.
They’ll find us,
the rest, deposits of calcium,
puzzles left for them
to try for a week.
When they find us
they’ll think maybe,
once, they saw one of us
out there in the dark,
dressed in a puffier
exoskeleton.
When they find rows
of gravestones
carved with strange language,
they’ll try forming the sounds
on their native tongues,
trace the hieroglyph t and star
and moon with their fingers.
When they enter a home
of bound language,
they’ll find it impossible to understand.
Wander the steps,
our voices silently surrounding them.
Wonder if they’ll ever find
live ones. Or will they
always be late.
Marlena Chertock has two books of poetry: Crumb-sized: Poems (Unnamed Press) and On that one-way trip to Mars (Bottlecap Press). She uses her skeletal dysplasia as a bridge to scientific writing. Marlena is a bisexual writer and serves on the planning committee of OutWrite, Washington, D.C.’s annual LGBTQ literary festival. Her poems and short stories have appeared in Breath & Shadow, The Deaf Poets Society, The Little Patuxent Review, Noble/Gas Quarterly, Paper Darts, Rogue Agent, Stoked Words, Wordgathering, and more. Find her at marlenachertock.com and @mchertock.
