Steps to Self-Preservation
I thought the flowers near the tree
were growing so swiftly.
But it turned out mushrooms were just
pushing up underneath in rot.
The mums were all dead.
This wasn’t the first time I was
fooled by beauty that was really decay.
Opaque syrups poured on my tongue
made me forget what was to come.
How night would be over and
you would be gone.
If you are stirring risotto you
have to add the liquid very, very slowly.
Making a quiet and predictable
hurricane of mantecatura.
I watched a planet fall out of orbit
and come crashing down to Earth.
How many times are we saved
by the atmosphere, I wonder.
The ferns coil in circinate vernation,
such a sense of self-preservation,
like most of the women I know.