Lorelei Bacht

FUNDAMENTALS

Underneath the            oil stain of                    pain, 

dirt, shame,                  hurt...                           there must 

be something else -      what                             they call: 

Joy.                              I am yet to find it.        Again

and again,                     I am found                   believing 

that I have hit that        solid                            rock 

bottom - only to           discover                       yet 

another manner of        falling                          through 

the ground,                   seeping                        through 

the sand, an                  inexorable                    descent 

into interstices.                                                 There are

rivers                            within rivers,                layer after 

layer of                         inexplicable.                I am 

beginning                     to lose                          trust in 

the very                        notion                          of solidity: 

perhaps                         it is my                        determined 

trajectory                      to fall,                          fall, fall.

Lorelei Bacht is a European poet living in Asia. Her most recent work has appeared / is forthcoming in The Wondrous Real, Visitant, Quail Bell, Abridged, Odd, Fahmidan, Slouching Beast, Post-Script, Wretched Creations, SWWIM, The Wells Street Journal, and The Riverbed Review. She is also on Instagram: @lorelei.bacht.writer