“And finally do not entrust your future to the limits of your stride.l
and I had only been outside for ten minutes when the mushroom grabbed me,
like a mirror,
held me in her attention.
first, go back
then wait,
slower than
habit,
paced.
II.
the first thing I do
is line them up
and dare them.
I never back up.
I tell them I won’t back up
and if they charge me,
I won’t back up.
“I am prepared now to force clarity on you.”
–Louise Gluck
if you can’t stop time, lean into it.
He pointed to his name tag, “I’m Orion.”
Marisol yelled from across the room, “XXX thinks he can be the constellation that attracts his true love to him.”
Part 2: How did you get here?
“a question marked swallow hungry for an answer.”
I have three cuts through
the devil on my leg
and a small bruise to the right of
it, a large bruise on
my left thigh.
when we met,
you had a large bruise on your
right arm
and I don’t know where
I got it.
you are careful.
I am unsure what to say.
I don’t either.
I begin to tell her a dream.
he begins to tell me a dream.
I am in the middle of a forest.
it feels wet, dark and cold,
at night but it starts turning
into maybe dusk.
I guess dawn but it feels like night is coming
right around the corner.
she is in front of a fire
on a log, there are logs set
out like it’s camp
or there are others expected.
and all she says is
wait, be careful
what you say
and holds her hands up.
she kind of walks towards me.
she is young but her.
but like also her child.
like, I mean, if she was
a child.
walking up,
hands out saying
be careful what you say.
and then I just wake up.
and then wake him up
“datura moon” or “the story of us”
there are two giant
bruises on each thigh.
I am careful not to hit them
with my fingers except
I already have
and I shriek.
you don’t even ask.
I spent most of my time
that late winter
searching.
what you would say:
combing through options,
in flux and in search of
weight.
and some guy,
a stranger
in my house, said to me
after I had given him reiki
for money, for rent,
for phone bill,
smirking on my apartment floor:
“Smile.” and added.
“What do you look like naked?”
and added
“How much to see?”
and I stood tall and robust
like a weed in Kensington’s
concrete garden:
stepped on but
won’t go away
and then
suddenly growing
into a gun.
not only that,
but suddenly
making rent.
fuck.
ok.
you don’t even ask.
“doors #5”
when you look at me
you see a long hallway,
you see a pointy
knob, you see
a mutable exit,
opening to close
and over
and over
and over.
“affection #2”
daturamoon.com 