May Poetry
Formed Tar
I’m a better person when I’m
digging holes in the ground
I climbed this mountain with a load
Glass bottles and sharp spade
clinking in my pack
Petals, casings, and stems
Dried cornbread returned.
I asked if she’d take something else
Carried far too long on behalf of my mother’s mothers.
20 paces later I came to face
A glistening black snake
crawling
from the heart of a tree
Formed Tar. Our Agreement.
But in order for her to receive it
I had to give it
Release the stick clenched in my jaw.
Thus the purge began and
Howling through memories
I invited the dam to burst
I bled let myself
And she held true.
I do not know who fed on this offering, but
I feel a vulture sated in the mist.
♇
♇
Hold.
I need to taste the bitter
Feel it on my tongue
Before I spit it out.
I want to taste the bitter
Feel it on my tongue
Before I spit it out.
I will taste all of the bitter
Feel it on every side of my tongue
Before I spit it out.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
Again. Again. Again.
I do not forgive you.
♀
♀
Venus in Cancer
A homing pigeon
Wings tied
A hermit crab
Between shells
Searching for belonging
in my bone’s marrow.
I wonder if, while I feel so out of place
The tiny mites on my eyelids
See my lashes as a forest
Each one a great sequoia
My tears a hurricane.
Do they prepare every year for
winter, my birthday, February 14th?
They know my seasons better than I do.
If I am someone’s cell
And someone’s universe
No wonder my heart always feels
Too massive for my chest.
