So Sad Things Die

 

I was suckling on your teat                        7

Well after I knew it wasn’t needed                    10

You kissed me deeply and my lips parted             10

My mother Prithu, Io, Hessat,                    9

 

Rows of Narcissus, peat bogs, charcoal                9

Shifted onto the hip of reasons                    9

The world stood contra-post over the Valley            12

A vanitas hung on the mantle                    11

 

Fecund Lilac, naked on the farm                    9

Sexed like a chick in the hutch                    7

You laughed wandering off into the woods             10

(Ill never forget)…….. "so sad things die"                9            

 

Your hippy mind is hard to follow                    9

Sent to the fen with a bucket and a shovel            12    

A soft sickled harvest to bury                    9

Devour dirt fill up the refrigerator!                    12

 

Sweet sweetbreads and delicate livers,                9

Tender eviscerated bodies                        9

Interred by the malady of mothers milk                11

Into graves unmarked by stones and bouquets            10

 

Bellicose autumn crocus emerge                    9

and settle for short shadows (……I do.)                9

As they wed the lacy sheets of snow                9

And birth a child in a quagmire                     9

 

Its cold, pull back the covers.                    7

you are my son, come rest on my skin                9

Ixchel, my mother, I shed tears                    8

I lay howling under your commands                9

 

We’re back-to-the-land in Chimacum                9

Thick coat coyote out near the culvert                10

Kirk, grab your gun in case we need to shoot her        11

Placenta on the ground, in the sky a vulture.            12

 

The ditch was brown and hard to swallow.            9

The hairs stood up, my skin would prickle            9

A sick spirit lingered over the still-born calf            12

The Mother lowing in the barn in the end.            11    

 

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