Cuttings


The nice thing about having fins is how
they cut things, serrate the cellophane
of surface tension. I suppose
wings can do this too. Meanwhile
the spine’s a stick that pins you straight to the world.
One year I planted rhododendrons in the shade.
Called each one “you,” and “you,” and “you.”
Reasons for being in a garden:
very different from a beach.
Baked shale. Effluvial ooze. Near water green,
far water silver. Black fins cutting the distance.



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