because we want to become something else the doll thing that we were
porcelain prey virgin petal pearl baby is dead
because damsel corpse princess bait is dead
*
So our limbs became the leaves the fallen orange mosaic
taciturn reborn with a baton of ruin the Fibonacci sequence of the seeds
spiral galaxies unfurling ferns reborn into the cosmos of Their eyes
in pupils Death breathes infinitely matte a flatness vacuumed through our adult pills
Zoloft Ambien the bottles crack
sleep inks its way across a wounded fly we contemplate the cumulous of Why
*
We’re reborn when the pines exchange our ego
Rainbow Sparkle Pony for their green god
Snake Breath Magma meanwhile Lady Gaga bleeds through earbuds
I’m gonna marry the night I’m not gonna cry anymore
*
In a beginning the universe contracts Death sucks in Their breath & emptiness
is born M-m-m-marry the night forest demons eat that pink helpless girl
with hair to her knees doe eyes church dress
remember she’s already dead she’s as good as dead
she’s waiting to be killed & to be killed
*
Death makes us one of Their own capriciously strangely
the sound of waves the waves of sound a primal sea opens shafts of speeding light
a sparrow watches as we sink into the water touching stars reflected on the surface
when our fingertips arrive they shatter pale fish stare into our face
we hold our breath flagellum-hairs surround our head the ear-like fins of squid
our eyespots see we’re algae ancient as our cells divide
into the water’s darkness a triangle desire becomes weed sea beast
*
Because life & death good & evil love & hate
you never know what Death might do
make runaways into gods & gods into runaways make trees into farmgirls & farmgirls into gods
from Michigan & Louisiana Kentucky & Pennsylvania Texas & California
We pledge allegiance to the Moon of the United Spores of Mycelium and to the Sky for which we stand one nation under Death INDIVISIBLE with wildflowers and seashells for all
because you never know what Death might do make a bower for us to rest where it’s always spring
grow Death Caps Morels Fly Agarics where hair brown-black-red-yellow-violet-silver
eats through rock spines branching underground for miles
we’ll trade our dendrites for mycorrhizae irises for spore-prints feed on the decay of our tragedies because you see
Brandi George is the author of Gog (Black Lawrence Press, 2015) and the play in verse, Faun (Plays Inverse, 2019). Her poems have recently appeared in American Poetry Review, Fence, and Orion. She teaches writing at FSW in Fort Myers, Florida.
