watch branches swing in a sudden gust and watch the
leaves rip free, hang on air itself: an estranged fruit.

here lies what happens when your mother’s tongue leaves no word for you. what happens when your father’s home misses your body. here lie your roots in once-empty hands, plucked one by one like baby teeth. you swallow and swallow them, and they don’t grow back.

Keep me on your purple tongue. / I will not be swallowed like an afterthought snack.