i used to dream
of you

bursting into
the hearth

shivering as
i drape

a red blanket
round you.

i used to dream
of you

leaning into
languid

eazy gold warmth
from the

crackling fire built
for you.

awoken to
dead ash

i wished you were
buried in ice.

was it for the lichens
growing on my pleached
entrails that you came,

scavenging like caribou
on pilgrimage to the
wintering ground?

last time we
saw each other
we made love.

now we don’t
even make
conversation.

white hot ecstasy
                                    molting skins grinding slower,
i                     puttering to halt.
remember:
                            the grubby larva
                            sawing its way out of my
                                   putrid flesh cocoon.

                after worms love,
                we rotten husks
                never know one
                another.

     silence is all ever known.

somewhere
on the isle of my dreams,
under the palm beach leaves,
between the sea, the breeze,
and the golden darts of Sol;

i will find your fingers,
thread mine around them.
stay close to you evermore.

maybe it’s the way you


glued together
all the broken pieces i
would show you.


                        maybe it’s the way
                        you shattered them
                        all over again
and told me




“I’ll be back when you’re whole.”

if i have a nature
it is the eucalyptus forests of california,
of portugal. the forest whose burning
seeds and bark fly like spittle from
the mouth of a rabid raccoon.

if i have a nature
it is the trees in central park
living on a token plot in a
jungle of someone else’s design.

if i have a nature
it is the evergreen that
chokes on holly, smothered
by the weight of its peers.

but nature is always changing.

and so, if i have a nature
it is a conifer heaving a gasp and another
despite the hands at its throat.
it is the grass growing in the cracks of
the concrete jungle, reclaiming its home.
it is the flower, clawing through the ash
of those who came before
to turn and face the sun

if i have a nature
it is dreaming
it is pleading
it is vowing
alongside the germinating green

Upright. Upright.