essences and accidents

you knelt close, in the basement of your house

showing me something

when you leaned in, I felt my entirety buzzing

vibrating like the strings you were plucking

pulled toward you, like you were a balloon

that the hair of me rubbed on

your negative to my positive

I forgot everything

and I couldn’t feel my limbs

flummoxed and flustered

the hooks already fusing with my skin

I was done in then

years later, when you held me close

I used to think I could feel solar systems

orbiting around the sun of us

the only charged up stillness I’ve ever known

warm and burning me up from the inside out

the hooks hidden and overgrown

by a budding garden I had not planted

I couldn’t see the chains for the flowers

what’s mine is ours

what was mine was hours

grown and sewn

the seasons come and go and go

next spring, bereft of nutrients, the soil is cold

you thought you planted perennials

but they won’t return without a host

-october 2022