Once upon a time,
there was a girl,
and her name was Twirlanna,
and she was in trouble.
Twirlanna sits in her
parents’ master bathroom
with a tester in her hand.
Crying partially
into her mother’s Lancôme makeup bag
Now that she knows she’s heavy,
and the boy that made her heavy has left.

Twirlanna is not yet aware at her young age of these secrets of existence:
that it all has a purpose, and that any suffering is worth it

but for now she is tired and she wants to fall asleep.
But she can’t stop thinking of this thing
that’s already growing big inside her:
the sky tiger, orange, translucent
and as wide as the map Twirlanna’s already had drawn for her in her head

Twirlanna peeks out of her parents’ bathroom,
her vision blurred with promise-girl tears.
She sees on her mother’s dresser the trophy:
her runner up prize from the baton twirling competition.

She had to sell her baton to buy the pregnancy test,
and thinking this thought makes her start sobbing all over again

and inside through the boundaries of her body
the zygotic sky tiger growls.
And through his tiny, giant body you can see his ant farm heart growing,
and the ants are building a path that’s parallel to one I know well.

What is this sky tiger, stretching us all into the future?
What is this sky tiger, forming all the jungle around him?
Why is this sky tiger, flying through all yet all contained?

What is this sky tiger, stretching us all into the future?
What is this sky tiger, bringing our girl past the familiar?

Twirlanna is now where a set of stairs curve and begin to go upside down
She walks up to the ceiling where there is a small door and a flower
She climbs out into the underground roof
and she is overwhelmed the sound of sky tigers rushing by

There is a small keyhole in the shape of the rose she is holding
She puts the rose inside, and walks up the platform
that emerges from the sky
At the end of the platform there is her grown sky tiger,
and her grown sky tiger is singing:
This seems to point to a sudden spiral
You must travel through
This seems to point to a hidden pathway
You must travel down
You are now standing at an unused lighthouse
You must make it shine
You are the boat on the enlightened ocean
You will make it ashore

What is this sky tiger changing all the structures around him?
What is this sky tiger forming our girl into a trinity?

It’s just like the dream I had when I was only three
where the tree outside smiled, turned on all the lights in the family room;
I was sucked into the vacuum of outer space.

Outer space was right in the hallway
My nails dug deep into the old pink carpet
It all felt very real and un-dreamlike
I don’t ever think I’ll get past that confusion
to be standing in that giant room of ours,
have a tree turn on all of their lights,
get sucked out into outer space which is all around me.

What is all this water forming in a puddle around her?
What if all this dreaming formed a tiger the size of her memory?