the life & death of an arborist
a nectarine hyperaware of its pit
worried that the bites i’ve taken
have already been much too big
that my jaw is still laced too tight
to that which we can’t seem
to get ourselves out from under
& how i’d love for it to become unmoored
time turning a choke instead into a swallow
allowing for a planting deep inside the dirt of me
this miraculous swirl between us now a fruit tree
& oh how much joy we could glean from water
the only people that matter are the people we love
the gray & chill of morning drizzling itself into the ocean
& a bridge made out of wet sand & blood
the sounds of saltpeter drops as if onto umbrella skin
& elton john on the radio telling us to shine the light
i’m trying to leak it instead of blood reginald
& i swear i’m gaining access to an infinity of feeling
that renders everything before it pretend
doing shots of succulents in soil
wanting to swallow her up but so that she remains
laugh into her skin & talk into her mouth
pick her up & carry her into a serene forever
swim in a body of water which is just night sky shrink wrapped in vinyl
live long enough so that everything reminds of everything else
& the thing about zippers is they are a pair of jagged teeth that come together so good
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there is only ever now / & now is halfway into some corn on the cob / by a warm saltwater pool / in cul de sac maryland / before remembering about old bay / what i’m saying is / shit will always get / stuck in your teeth / & there will always be time / you wish you could get back / a happier seemingly unlocked / if you had only known then / what you know now / you’ll just have to trust me / that when i slowly squeeze you into dust / while we sleep / it’s only so i can inhale you as i dream / in black & white & then in technicolor
primal rhythms so synced that when that chorus hits we are both ghosts
i love you first
then comes touch
& do you believe me
when i talk about the blackness
of the before you
& the white of the after
when i say we’re the same
set of sparks only encased in separate
but equally measured doses of dead cells
the god particle is flame
& you’re the furnacey core
making everything new again
& time immeasurable
i love you first
then comes now
& now again
& now again
& now again