for/with Steph

 

after the fig tree stayed exiled

in the uninsulated porch

the whole winter?          Grans had no place for

spiraling arms                           plus the toddler

who came with us mid-pandemic

to wait a seasonchange

 

Time stuttering time I coveted

some real estate by three fake plants

deciding not                          to claim

a thermal spot                    inside for

this first unborn I called

by a person’s name

 

—Michelangelo our mic

who didn’t speak after twelve weeks

expecting turned          wolflike howling

a heavy moon         spilled tides through

our Chicago rental

the lake as outside as within

 

the emptiness flowed so

we adopted that banyan

who would lactate             when pruned

leaving sticky         spots like memory…

We loved his staying toughness

thru badmouthed neighborhoods

 

Illinois Michigan Rhode Island

slowmuscling Fibonacci dancer

Zen master in             out in out of

temperate units              rerepotted

unbent from overstuffed Uhauls

to summers outdoors

 

before the exile.

Good news I’m alone

when I notice      his life withered

nobody                    sees me tear

round his weightlessness

saltwater roots

 

cut hairs once more

move bald outside where

winds                       abate

whisper                   lil guy

this same dirt grew

your biped sister

 

who eversprings

we’re bare at last

when            to entangle

how             to compost

it’s your call

always whether either

 

crossing or waiting

we’re borderbound—

still                         he

responded              by

being there where

I left him