my healing is my own

like yours, my love

and we are an illusion of light and dark

in the spun reality

of each passing day

where shadow space opens

to length

and cold

in light’s inversion of these dark months

we too create shape and form

looking past what has passed

there was a snake that moved in waves

through the prairie grasses

through the riverbank rocks and sticks

through the loose stones of the mountainside

and into the deep ocean’s sandy floor

burrowing in undulating depth

farther and farther sloughing off what was dead

shedding lifetimes

and growing anew

snake of time

whisper in my ear with your seething, tickling tongue

spit your poisonous medicine into my blood

I will accept the shuddering death

and rebirth

of your coiling form

Love elephant and want to go steady?

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Assistant Editor: Jennifer Moore/ Editor: Rachel Nussbaum

Photo: Erika Walden