a poem is built from the ground up. you start with the last line and say, here, i will plant you. and you will grow and i will be your mother. how great does it feel to be able to make whole things, to be able to take them back inside you at any moment. when they are acting up, to say, silly child, don’t think I can’t undo this. and then you let the poem grow. the last line is the seeds and they are snug rooted in a bed of sureness and clarity. a poem is urgent. a poem feels like having *** with myself, because afterwards I am tired and feel like I did something. And I am the Mother, and so am I, on my hands and knees doing ***** work and looking feminine. And me and her are going to raise a family together. All the things I create are going to be in my likeness and my girls will have pink lips round like quarters and my boys will always treat girls right and they will never have a daddy to look like or to miss. And I will say I love you, poems, and they will say, I love you, too, Mother and Mother and Mother and we will be happy.