How do I quell the place that built me?
I ask this, who am myself the ruined siding,
a torn uterus where once a butterfly
flung colored, after rain,
into my stomach an explosion of stars.
These are the things I miss:
Tenderness and rot
a gulp of fire, those firewater eyes,
yellow, yellow, yellow,
while the moon rode over the garden,
and free of any eden we can name,
we loved right down to the bone.
Line origins, in order of appearance:
- “All the Stones That Built Me” by Somto Ihezue
- “The Woodpecker Keeps Returning” by Jane Hirshfield
- “In Arabic, the Word for “War” Is Similar to “Love”” by Sara Abou Rashed
- “Delight Is As the Flight” by Emily Dickinson
- Butterfly the Gnarled” by Amy King
- “The Intimacy of Scorpions” by Shash Trevett
- “Tenderness and Rot" by Kay Ryan
- "And I will consider the yellow dog" by Fran Lock
- "Love Song" by William Carlos Williams
- “In a Garden" by Amy Lowell
- "You, Therefore" by Reginald Shepherd
- "I'll Open the Window" by Anna Swir
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