Mantis 21 (Summer 2023)
New Poetry
Aster Leonis
Respite
The cold beam of the February sun
Shining on my face
The birds are singing around me
I feel my lungs expand as I reach
For the first breath in days
I can even discern my thoughts
And suddenly it seems like there is no war
Like everything was a nightmare
But soon the blasts will start again
The news will pour again
And this fake stillness
Will evaporate into thin air
Like did our lives from before
From which only remains a distant taste
It was only a couple of days ago
But I feel so old already
Time is relative to the will of the tyrants
And maybe tomorrow time will stop
Completely
It already has for so many
And so, I listen to the birds
I hope I will be here again tomorrow
I hope
They will be too
ASTER LEONIS is a graduate student at Stanford. They grew up in France and left at 18 to study abroad and explore the world.