Fables for L. Cohen by Tanya Rakh

I once met Leonard Cohen in a stanza
I asked him to note my passing, and my poems
I don’t know how I expected him to outlive me
I am barely a solar system
He was dark matter.

I once met Leonard Cohen on a plane to nowhere
We flew over the ocean, drank black coffee
and poured sugar on the floor
It formed spirals as it spilled.

I once met Leonard Cohen in a brokendown tropic
He was collecting feathers that fell on the sand
while Henry Miller sat in the treetops above, laughing,
throwing oranges at us.

I once met Leonard Cohen in a dream
He was walking backwards in an ice cream world
We followed the broken furniture into warmer rooms
and he helped me tune Picasso’s blue guitar.

I once met Leonard Cohen on a superhighway
He crushed the traffic underfoot
No one was hurt except machinery
The people collided in somersaults above the shoulder.

Only one of these stories is true, and only half true at best
Nevertheless, I’ll always remember
the backwards ice cream air traffic somersaults,
the sugar spiral orange world
The way the air smelled, even though it wasn’t air
His words forming the shape of a blue guitar
as he followed the cracks that led him home.

Tanya Rakh was born on the outskirts of time and space in a cardboard box. After extensive planet-hopping, she currently makes her home near Houston, Texas where she writes poetry, surrealist prose, and cross-genre amalgamations. Her writing has appeared in numerous journals including The Gasconade Review, Redshift 4, Literary Orphans, Fearless, Yes, Poetry, and The Rye Whiskey Review. Tanya is the author of two books: Hydrogen Sofi and Wildflower Hell, new editions of both available from Posthuman Poetry & Prose.