0. Åši
In your most natural long hair
I like you most. Lined eyes,
Ganga’s kisses
speckling your skin in shots,
drying in the air.
I should please you as she in
the river listens.
We come from like tribes, don’t
you see?
Just like his, your hair is
dipped
in ashes, running three lines
along your blue neck.
1. Vá
There you go, leaving his footprints
behind.
When He broke into his mortal line,
He would have taken the shape you own –
He did. Your name – His, His spirit flown
into the tips of your nails,
shaking strums that radiate out,
are carried into space, blending tunes
with melodies He hummed while dancing.
He sits in the slopes of your mouth
where smoke and music merge into new
sounds.
2. Ya
I want to swim with you:
Along our ancestors’ coast,
greeting our past mother’s ghost,
there as they laugh from the cliff,
upsetting the waves, our ship.
As we meet the horizon we kiss,
their eyes open in wonder!
How do one plus one make none?
But we, by this time, are gone.
Photo: Bhavesh Jain (2020)
Home?
A place where I can thrive.
What is home to you?
In German, home, where you return every day to, or where your address is, is called Zuhause, while Heimat describes where you’re from, your ancestral home. I used to be offended when people wanted to know where my ancestral home was, but I take it as an opportunity now to honour my ancestral line, because me being here is not an accident, and I return the question, even to Germans who are German looking I will ask: where are you from?
Lucia Deyi is a creative from Germany of Chinese descent. After studying at CalArts, she went on to pursue her MA in Shakespeare and Creativity at Stratford-upon-Avon, UK. Her writing work ranges from poetry to pieces for screen & theater. She's currently developing a graphic novel and voices characters for film & TV in Germany, Berlin.