Placing orchids between stones
The organization may be arbitrary but the motive is not at all
One sleep for one shorter
One breath for one steeper
These adjustments may be auxiliary but the outcome is not all at once
I still have so much love to give
I still have so much love to give
I still have so much love to give
I-80: the back of a billboard
Frozen and rusted scaffolding
Oncoming traffic must make mirrored rear-views
To see what is plainly exposed to me across the paling road
I speak definitively but I’m still figuring how
They witnessed my worst health, but kicked me out anyway
And held patient against my aches
As if they'd chalked it up to permanence
“We know you are not that special
“We are not your goddamn parents
“And we will not regret this treatment”
The dragonfly’s wing snaps and the moth’s billows
Flight is lost regardless
I observe this with apprehension during noisy evenings
Of a month already humid and orange
Amid weeks swollen with fresh foliage and El Niño's record heat
If I catch familiar scents nestled in sleep
Somehow, despite clean sheets
And we linger in the dark awhile
I hope it is finally less of a plummet, instead a momentary drift
I still had so much love to give
I still had so much love to give
I still had so much love to give
I still had so much love left to give