Muck spectacular!
In the ankle-lisping scrub-shrub
I test the delirious
trees.  How long

will they clamor to embower
me?  The rain
equivocates, wanting to rise
as steam before it falls as water

& extracts my promise
to be hotter after.
I promise to be hotter after.
I gather the willow’s weepings

in my sleevelessness &
discipline myself to believe
in a destiny they sketch.  In
this first dalliance

with the capacity to leaf, my waist
plays celibate.  Into
the piney widowmaker’s warning
that lust domesticates,

I infuse my haze-day
dream: This rain is a home.
That lake is a room.
The minnows are windows

in my every wall.  I swoon.
How will I ever set fire
to the woods
if it continues to be as wet

as this?  Winsome
duplicity!  Around a twitchy center
the willow branches
steer & swat me.

Original appearance in Memorious 16.