i will fill you with apologies
let them flow through your teeth

i will give you roses in the form of words
clean of their thorns
growing without their soil

i will fill every protagonist gap in your story, and
be the "you" in each of your poems

i will be the stump of every tree you cut, and
seeds of every tree you plant

i will make you one hundred
as i die out as a hero;
your zero