two thoughts for May

1.

There is a place I like to go. I go there less and less.

Where have you been? They say. Where have you been? You used to have so much
time. Now all of it is spent in places other people made.

I’m afraid, sometimes, I say.

What could you be afraid of? What could there be here to fear?

To lose myself here—To wrap myself up in you—Yet I fear, too, to bring others in with me. To let them see. I leave instead.

Such a fire was in you. Where did it go?

It’s still here, I protest. It’s in me yet.

A spark is not a fire, they say.

A fire must be fed.

2.

There are blossoms wind-pressed to my body, baby!
There are petals in the puddles!
How then can I be grim—
I open myself up to happiness
Like unfolding kneeling to an angry dog;
I let it sink its teeth in me.

So all my exes take new loves to Europe—
But I have sweet spring bloom;
Blown-open sky;
Heart so big it aches at light in windows;
Magnolia tree on rapid cycle
Bursting open full and wilting
Pink-white bites fall brown to pavement
incisor, canine, molar—
Quick!
Pack up the wound while new buds split on branch!