a tissue place

i had tennis shoes i had your
ring on this pinky on Pedialyte
gatorade swig swinging blue

check on me to say: five tangerines         today, maybe one
more tomorrow
believe in the
sweet water & hand
you in my sugar mouth
i’m sorry i’m so —

i lit my hair on fire
& the smell was
it was a death with
honeyed scythe
meat so tricky

the burnt
bones and sanitizer
childish fire         over
the body of a milking cow

don’t read too many books
on obstetrics because the
womb is not ours to hold
in a tissue place

my silly scissor mouth

when the phone
when it rang
rang off the hook
screaming wax on

a hanger rack
cow will wail // okay?
tender speckles
under a microscope

i am soft wheel and brunt
iron forged
in my mother’s mouth

dear child

dear child hiding in the capillaries,
dear child licking the salt off the horse block,
unafraid of the way the beast flips up its lip
you have a leash to neglect and this may be
the very time to do it,
it being soiled shoelaces,
grinning skin and new lightbulbs
here’s a watering can waiting for water,
and fingernails hinged to mimic the moon’s-shape
grab the magnifying glass to the left
the inner you may shout this, a call to arms
it is subtle but tinged with
a flowering breath
dear child won’t forget the flick of the
hickory whip on the wrist, so like the
horsetail to a fly
its brittle & sticky limbs oh so
clung to the first landing it stuck
its six legs create a space for air
and then some
oh child your innards are a green light for more landings
but perhaps the watering can is still not full
ask what full means
ask what best or time means