2018 FALL LC MAGAZINE

CON L I T E R A T U R E . T H E A T R E . A R T Unfold —I want to hold you Because I know you will hold me, too. I want to hide myself somewhere in the crook of your neck, Beneath your hair, between your breasts, Not because the world will solve itself While I am there hiding And not because it can’t see me When I close my eyes And turn farther into your chest But because I am a storm cloud which lost Its thunder and can’t tell if it’s simply departed Like disco or a divorced wife with the kids Or if it somehow got buried and I just lost the map, Because, for a moment, the span of a few minutes, The hemisphere of an hour, the minute hand Sailing the white sea of inevitably with a tacit severity, I can escape—tuck myself away and withdraw into the translucent cocoon of your love, both with you and inside of you, and your love, intangible at all times but these, moments when it softly solidifies, like moonlight mist descending into dew upon the skin of folding flowers, tulips and lilacs bowing their heads in sleep or prayer or both, and I charge and rest, and your chest and your silence say everything in the way an envelope knows everything about a letter from their simple friction, its fingers gliding like water over stone, somehow not just reading but knowing, the water a half-mile downstream tasting just perceptibly of granite, because, somehow, here in this living room, upon this sofa, I am on Everest and can taste the upper atmosphere and see everything I forgot there was to see, and I can explain nothing but understand everything, and then, because, before the dryer’s buzz or the movie’s end respectfully, promptly, aptly summons us, before the phone rings or the macaroni begins to burn, the lightning returns to the heart of the cloud, the thunder is restored, singing baritone rings around the rain, waiting to pour out again, and we unfold— Christopher Bernstorf ’12 is a spoken word poet, performing in up-close and intimate settings with a lone light illuminating the space as his powerful words fill the air and connect with his audiences. The following is his most recent poem, and you can hear him speak these words and other works by visiting www.chrisbernstorf.com . Want to be featured here? Alumni are encouraged to share their recent works of literature, theatre, art, music, and film to be considered for future publication by contacting marketing@lycoming.edu . 48 LYCOMING COLLEGE 2018 FALL MAGAZINE