This week, journalist, writer, and educator Chaya Babu reads “Disco Child” - a piece crafted as a healing incantation.

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DISCO CHILD

By Chaya Babu

let your hair down now, let it be as when you were a child. let it swell, or silver, as when you were a fairy girl. write what’s in your belly. a ghost there. your grandmother. let her come to you in the night, in the day now, as you rest. rest now, as the hours are lulled, empty, full. pick up a disco ball from the sidewalk grass, a paperclip tied to its silver string. see it dazzle on the walls of your castle — a small room, a shelter thing. see it scatter light.        shatter night.        matter.

pick a card any card let it show you the day. pick a dream. paint it. paint a balloon on your cheek and a crack in your head. let your dreams ooze out. let them be as when you were a child. let your hair down now, write what’s in the green wood. write what’s in your cracked head, what’s in the rupture time, what’s in the hole in your belly.

drink the golden stuff time is yours.

see the starling bird with its black, its winged green. come to know the night again its black its lilith star its pallas athene its last house and black sun and more. no — that’s morning.
feel your mourning, at last. let her come to you in the hours, lulled, iridescent, as rainfall. let her cups spill.

drink the golden stuff as when you were a fairy girl. pick a card now see it scatter. paint the night, the day. crack your dreams. 

play, as when you were a starling girl. a disco child.

rest,
child.

scatter the light now.