MICRO
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.
MICRO
watch branches swing in a sudden gust and watch the
leaves rip free, hang on air itself: an estranged fruit.
MICRO
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.
MICRO
Keep me on your purple tongue. / I will not be swallowed like an afterthought snack.
