she gave him the moon he
put it in his head, said
I have no stars for
you tonight so take
these comets instead so
she took them held them
up right up so
high up to the night, saw
future past and presently
she bottles them in light

Utuqaq, the apocalypse,
won’t burn us alive by fire, no.
Mayans never spoke of *muruaneq
even in predictions.

Pirtuk, the apocalypse:
left behind in snowy bark,
footprints of squirrels
alarming at circling eagles.

Matsaaruti, the apocalypse —
the walking dead are peonies
furrowed on tombs. They’re not the end
though singing bowls sing

our breaths, icy and visible.
Siguliaksraq, the apocalypse.
Earth is grey and white;
pukak - the coming snow.

All the elements of a perfect storm
But there isn't any water,

It's our drought. We thank
The families with thank you

Cards for siphoning
Out gas tanks

Spiced with dry rub
Rust.

Our children are eager,
Learning things you can't learn

From books; jailed women
Shackled to beds, giving birth

To honeybees
And teakettle songbirds.

It's hard when you have
No home to call home

Because snowflakes bring
Out the worst in him.

His dogs use scent to tell
Time. Time to board

Up the windows,
We say,

Waiting out the bone-white
Hunger,

Wondering which way
Is home.

Let’s bomb Dresden
with the black fire
of thousands
of bookmarks
with poetry
of poets
far and
wide

-so it
goes-

and
each
side is
printed
with verse;
flip flopping
through the air
each to land on
Dresden’s ghosts.

He hands her bouquets
She swats each away to see
Guns firing petals

She cannot recant
The burn of spells cast daily
Ring ‘round the roses

And we all fall down
Iron-hued blood that stained
Empty bellies rouge

It bled everywhere
Darkened slick of sick roses
She won’t let him cry

Flowers from his eyes
Or hanging paper dollies
Says that it’s okay

Says that it’s okay
She can’t spill bone-dry flowers
To drown in the Nile

She swats each bouquet
Why won’t she just let him care?
He’s swatted away

I love you the way the sun rises every day, without fail. I love you like the night loves the moonlight, covering the darkness with her glow. I love you the way the universe expands into infinity. I love you for each star in existence and that ever will exist. I love you like seeing a streaking comet that comes around earth once every 80,000 years. I love you the way the soil huddles and heaves in winter. I love you for every grain of sand, and I love you the way sand becomes glass, solid and liquid, when put to heat. I love you for the lovebirds in your eyes. I love you as silkworms spin fine reflective threads. I love you past galaxies and superclusters when seen at the speed of light. I love you at the speed of love. I love you with the wild abandon of migrating butterflies being taken by summer’s wind. I love you for each tear that’s ever washed your face. I love you for every smile anyone has had the fortune of witnessing. I love you like a sunset’s last rays of the day, turning everything pink and fiery. I love you as a boulevard winds between houses with closed blinds and closed minds but the road ahead is open. I love you as words meet paper and poetry is created. I love you for every ant that ever worked to make a home in dirt mazes. I love you like the snowflake, vast in number and each unique. I love you the way bullets explode from chambers stopping at nothing but nothing. I love you like jellyfish sting, unforgettably. I love you the way a lioness defends her cubs unflinchingly. I love you the way fog slinks in, engulfing and blinding and in love with the moonlight. I love you like time heading forward and backward and all that is is now. I love you for every ‘I love you’ ever spoken, written, and thought. I love you like sage growing in a sidewalk crack. I love you as hieroglyphs carved within Egypt's tombs, for the way glyphs of people all face towards goddesses and gods. Je t’aime, je t’aime, mon petit rouge.

I showed her the stars-
I showed her lightningbugs-
I showed her the moon-

She showed me
That all of them
Were us;

That all of us
Were one.