we watched the world end from the top of skyscrapers
as the stars set the sea aflame
as highways gave way to yawning mouths
as kudzu devoured what was left of our neighborhoods
and you pulled out the last apple from your pocket
and i pulled out my father's knife
to peel it the way my mother does —
the sharp edge away from me —
and gave you every other piece
so we could share this last sweetness
while life went on to leave us
behind.
the snake is hungry
so the snake will eat
and eat it does, chewing, gnawing,
and will you ever notice, little thing,
that it is your own tail
you are swallowing?
from salt and foam and scales
steal the hearts of stone
nacreous shells, dying husks,
the honey-sweet flesh that once
clung to its bones
to die of thirst.
meet me at the end of the world
the space between firestorms and tsunamis
across the acid oceans
and here, where the rot
has begun to reclaim the cities at last.
Comments
This poem is gorgeous and painful to read
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