here i collect the
eager harvest
line each piece up in
my kitchen window
not ripe yet
i whisper
a secret to
each plum
heart
say true
all the way to
the pits
there in the window
they fatten
fall over on their
swollen sides
you eat them
leaving the pits
in a perfect
crescent moon
shape
sun wizened
elders
on my counter
here i swallow
all of them
plant them in
my belly
sing until
their shoots
push through
my ribs
here seven stories
found
sun
became
shadows
in the early morning
i lay out all of the things
about her
six love letters
fourteen photos
spanning two decades
maybe more
one name tag
last name only
one photo of me
age six
i am scowling
two photos of
strangers
scowling
the rest are all
her smiling
one publication
about a specific
species of plant
one that is delicate
hard to grow
her writing
a simple box
medium wood
four letters
her
ashes
early in the morning
i pack up the things
eleven photos
her smiling
you keep a jar of your hair
from when you were
a girl
in times when
you want linear
in the middle of
beautiful
chaos
no you
don’t need anything
but the sun just
overhead
wood floors under
your fine
deerskin
feet
three
fruit trees
growing in your
belly
my life goal
darling
is to watch you paint
while i write from
your floor
twine fingers after
grow old
inside
our
creative orchard
i want to paint
this
broad strokes
of flames and lava
make new islands
with it
encase it in
tree sap
until it ambers
nourish it
with blood
until it fattens
on the vine
make women
weep with it
spool it out
over a bridge
until it’s tentacles
reach
the ocean
let it sink to
the deepest
dark
become orange
coral
become
forever
i could call you wolf
put my hand out
you might attack
bite until you find
bone
i could sing songs
of my people
lift my face to
my favorite
planet
put my hand out
you might attack
bite down until
you find bone
i might weave stories
all night without
ceasing
about how many times
i’ve wanted
to stand next to you
in the
translucent proudness
of a
Mexican primrose
put my hand out
when i say
i am learning to love you
it includes scraping back
the meat and
finding the bone
it means counting
fractures
running the tips of
my fingers
along
every
thorny
break
this involves
marrow
as much as
i can eat
while
sitting at your patient feet
it means numbering
every piece of you
to gently return
fully
seen
when you fell
on my path
wicked and beautiful
matted fur
claws out
labored
breath
i knew immediately
i would suck
the venom out
if you let me
though the poison
has been there for
so long
the wound
nearly invisible
if you let me
close my eyes
lay hands on
your animal
body
match your breath
with my breath
the night creeping
cold fingers around us
i could swallow the
venom
store it down deep
maybe when you are
well again
you can hold my hair
while i vomit
someone’s else’s
heartache
we press our palms
against the sky
tear down constellations
let them fall
at our feet
become birthroot
around our ankles
become kudzu
around our hearts
we hunt in the same
season
sometimes in tandem
mostly apart
admiring kills
leaving teeth
offerings
at the mouth of
our caves
we erupt on
different islands
lava and ash
rage and sorrow
responsibility
to maintain
peace
we cool down
forget again
sleep until
we are
electricity
everything was cheap sugar then
not the fine pine sap
from the tree
we planted together
not the carefully curated
drops of
honeysuckle
clinging to my face
not the stalk of sugar cane
you cut down yourself
but instead
cloying sweetness
stuck to my teeth
pink tacky candy
someone’s leftovers
nobody’s charming
gift
i eat it anyway
chew it into words
with such force that i
find myself spitting
fuck this
onto the sidewalk
where someone carved a heart
in 1982
staggering to the place
where tender roots
held hands with
soil
watered by
no one’s tears
pruned by the wind
i bury
our fiction
at
sundown
now i know you to
be the howling
i heard against
my night
for so many
moons
the you who plants
seeds among the bones
of your
summer kill
warrior fruit for winter
you told me
once
the you who is always
watching
though never looking
stalking far along
the tree line
leaving no trace
of your scent
the you who
slips among the
uninspired who are
bleating in
circles
the you with
sleek black pelt
agate eyes
arrow tail
ridge raised neck
sharpest teeth i
ever admired
inside the beautiful lips
of a famous
poet
