Eats

 

I eat 

the land, earth, fertile dirt

 

       Stinging nettles for my tea, dusky sage, fragrant mint

                 unfaithful thyme,  soft-furred leaves, borage of blue stars

                               tall yellow mallow, beloved of bright orange butterflies, Monarchs 

the  carrot     the one the rabbit 

              somehow didn’t take, half-eaten red strawberries 

                                                                                   littered by squirrels

                                                                                                   on the ground

 

Pears

      how the dog leaped, grabbed three off the tree, took one bite of each

                 let them drop 

 

                      Peelings unwanted, food turned to compost, last year’s autumn leaves

                               ashes, my body, my bones  

 

                                       in her mouth, voracious, ravening  

                                                  

                                                she takes me, takes it all 

            

                                                                 Eats.

 

Eats

(in The Northern Appeal Issue 6 2019, p.51)