Greenberg & Camacho-Tenreiro – May 2024

Micaela Camacho-Tenreiro and KJ Hannah Greenberg traded art and words. KJ shared this image, titled “Island View,” with Micaela:

In response, Micaela wrote this poem:

Elegy For Spring

It’s not like me to resist my future
self. In fact, to her light, I’m frequently
a moth. It’s May, and summer is flirting
hard. Hemispheres wrap around her finger
like yarn. Today, trees are topped by green flames,
which means I missed the cherry blossoms. Failed
my heart. I stand on the balls of my feet
like the ballerina I looked forward
to becoming, but didn’t. When flowers
fall, they, too, fall in love. It’s no one’s fault —
we mistook a season for forever.
Our wounds, fresh fields, will close. Please, don’t forget —
if I had a seed for every reason
why this wouldn’t work, love, I’d plant them all.

* * * * *

Micaela shared this poem with KJ:

Love Poem Without Pancakes

Because she took the mix
when she moved out, 
your old roommate, 
because she was petty 
and messy as misery, yours, 
because you didn’t know before, 
because your blind spot 
was your mother and you’ve 
become what you have suffered, 
because you’re made of repetition, 
veins that ring the same red song, 
because you are alive, 
even though you are afraid, 
coupled to your sorrow 
like a shadow, like a lover,
whose arms you’ve only left 
because you wanted to
make her breakfast.

In response, KJ created this new untitled work: