allegiance
I pledge my allegiance to the state of Florida
Because I was born dripping like the juice from the oranges in the grove
Where we climbed over the barbed fence to rip bitter rinds with our milk teeth
We wore our wounds like red and purple medals hanging from our shins and arms
Until the sun scorched scars paled to a ghostly white to make us forget where we came from
Maybe my roots never took hold
But I sure did spit those seeds at every stoplight on my way out
rodanthe, 2006:
my baleen mouth caught starfish
and ropes of kelp wound through my jaws
when the undertow took me with it
dear god! dear neptune! save me from the crashing tide
wasp dream
on the ground there was an abandoned wasp nest; its cells were filled with dead larvae in such a way that it formed a craggy smile. my father picked it up and put it over his face like a mask while i looked on. i had a corncob in my hands, its kernels were the same dead larvae, so i dropped it in disgust and went to find a seat in church. my fingertips itched and burned as small hot sores began to form while the choir sang and i shifted uncomfortably in the makeshift pew of chairs. i pinched the tips of my fingers with my bitten down nails and wasps began to squeeze out of them, fully formed but still grub white and in sacs of liquid like placentas. i tried to avoid the stingers but even in their death, they were still threatening like so many things are.
the alchemist
stretching to clasp my hands
and bend
i break my back
like i break glass when i can
as if i could turn it into sand again
desperate for the ocean that spit me out
i mistake my destruction
for alchemy