Bacterium

In the last segment, I tried sufficiency. They moved
my femur and a single woman braiding her hair fell

from me. I tried to warn you, this desert editorializes.
A scorpion lifts its tail, braids more active than braiding,

it hisses. I, of all people, get it. In the mornings we wake
to the kind of life we want until we turn our heads east.

The night fills without us but I warned you, I was full
already. A banana inside me blasted open a door,

my thoughts at the threshold of such a door blank. Love
transacts, a figure in the distance crowded with window.

An enzyme eats plastic, but which kind? Synthetic polymer
or the ways you tried to keep me? This is the last segment.

My mother

draws a circle around time and this is an intercourse. My mentor
draws a circle around time and this is an intercourse. I shake

out of bed. Humans continue the first line of their suicide letter.
An enzyme invents us, we invent enzymes. The plastic we make,

we must eat it. Draw a circle around time. We designed us
in simple utterances. The political term graft means political

corruption. The grifter never had an I. In the burn unit, they
place tilapia skins over human scar tissue, the killed form on top

of afflicted form, also a graft. Also a graft of afflicted form,
the killed form on top, they place tilapia skins over human scar

tissue. In the burn unit, I never had a grifter, corruption
means political, graft the political term. In simple utterances

we designed us. Time draws a circle, we must eat it. We make
the plastic, enzymes invent we, us invents an enzyme to continue

the first line of a suicide letter. Out of bed I shake with intercourse.
Time draws a circle around my mentor. Time draws a circle around

my mother.

This is the last segment. The ways you tried to keep me? Synthetic
polymer, but which kind? An enzyme eats plastic, crowded window,

a figure in the distance transacts love. At the threshold of such
a blank door, my thoughts open a door. A banana blasted inside me.

Already I was full but I warned you, the night fills without us.
We turn our heads until we want the kind of life in the mornings

we wake to. I get, of all people, it. It hisses. A scorpion, more active
than braiding, braids its tail, lifts the editorialized desert. You tried

to warn me from me. Her hair fell braiding a single woman. My femur
was moved. They tried sufficiency in the last segment.

Source: Poetry (May 2019)