theodore’s Reviews > Golden Record > Status Update

“if i am moss,
mycelium,
white worm
grown from the
planet’s heart,
tapestry of all
mother tongues,
i’ll translate
dogwood to
baobab, stitch
the dead back
into the living,
sew all hearts to
mine.

if you love me,
then i am loved.
if you love me,
then i am loved.
if you love me,
then i am loved.”

“the splints around my heart are built
on the back of the orange, the sun-warmed wind,
the laugh lines on the first face i ever
knew.
nothing is mine to keep
but the glimpse of eternity in your open palm,
the luck to be born doomed and loving,
ready to alchemize the tree, the hand, the fruit
into tomorrow, into enough.”

“the floods burn and the fire drowns,
we mourn the hope of a peaceful death
with open throats, sore with longing,
we try to stay.-“

“awake in my body at the end of the future,
i watch my father peel oranges the the grove
of our ancestors,
watch him offer me the best piece.
the world yawns wide to show its rotting belly
and my lovers ache with something I can’t
heal.

its good to be alive, in the ruins of Carthage,
waiting for the grass to grow. -“

the summer, heavy-lidded,
arrives with arms stoned in dew
to teach me.
hyacinths jewel the charred pavement,
the city’s pulse point doused
in beer and lilac.
with sweat-cooked bellies browning,
salt in my laugh lines,
it isn’t hard to understand
that my use is to stand in awe,
witness to wonders that candy under my gaze,
adored,
to renew my vows to that hothouse flower
asleep in my chest. -“

“your laughter heats the dusk,
and it shows me a door in my heart i’d never noticed before.

i put down roots in the curve of your back and there i’ll remain,
lapping dew from cold china, harvesting the eggs left by the moon,
watering persimmon trees with my spirit ‘till they grow.

ruined, thankfully”