Cul de Sac

She might choose it
if the other ones prove too 

paved, or too ragged
without sidewalks. She can’t 

be without
sidewalks. Not for very long. He built it— 

he can curve around it
and drive in the opposite direction 

off the grid. She’s caught
in this dance with the dead 

ending. Knows she can find
another way out, take 

a look inside that patch
of sycamore. It wouldn’t be 

a bad time to take up
tree climbing again.

Sycamore (Day 1,353)

In the throes
of my intention
disorder, I forget
your name, how to reach
the top of you, how to
let go of those limbs 

you wave over me.
In these fits, the stories
I tell are not mine
except when they are.
That I come from ash,
that my mother left me 

in the rain
without a skeleton
shelter, that I still
eat dirt (raw not baked)—
these are some of the ones
I intend to qualify 

when I no longer suffer
from disease over the way
jacks wish to cut you down.