Tee-chuh by Nikita Azad

Tee-chuh

 …here on this bridge between
 starshine and clay
  - Lucille Clifton
 
 

not green-leafed duvet polka-dot butterflies cloth-bound
  fairies how it swaddles us like children & never feels heavy
 not moonlight washing your hair & head-
  board of our queen-size walnut-frame bed
 not starshine occasional whistle & tumble
  of wind against windowpane
 not two of us screaming un-pain Urwelt
  of our bodies wafts of lather linen lemon
 not even that primordial soundwave shaft
  of sunlight it dances upon
 not indie into our ears but techno
  chitter chirrup chuhrrr chuhrrr
 
 
 
 but how we stand
  a second longer by the open window
 how the Great Tit sings
  Tee-chuh Tee-chuh
 how we rub the night’s cold
  clay through our soles on our bodies
 how you say in my ear
  Tee-chuh Tee-chuh

Nikita Azad (they/she) is a writer and researcher, who writes about the natural world, gender, selfhood, and human-nonhuman relationships. They are a PhD researcher in the history of science at Oxford University and a Nan Shepherd Prize longlisted author. Their work has been published in The Willowherb Review, Quince Magazine, History Workshop Journal, The Quint and more. They occasionally tweet at @Nikita_azad