shadow waltz of the evergreens;
cut me off at my ankles & i'll leave
fingerprints on the windows--

in 2nd grade i came home
from school to find the two evergreen
trees in front of our house
had become stumps-- bases still
wet from where they cut off
by their ankles-- 
& i cried--
no one had warned me yet
that dying cuts you off by
your ankles-- leaves shadows 
on the hull of the house--
i still saw their silhouettes where
they once swayed out my window--
reach out to grasp branches--
in a dream i tied a hammock between
them-- asked them to sing a
song about where they had come from--
they hummed like fat-thighed
grasshoppers & the tight
lips of the preying mantis--
from my windowsill i watched
their stumps become fossils--
gnarled faces in the yard--
when i stood on top i felt
as if i were on the cusp of a portal--
i asked to be cut off
by the ankles-- shadow-waltz
in the round belly of the moon--
cried out to let me see their corpses--
the trees live on to leave
their finger prints on my windows--
i write them love poems 
carved into shingles and tossed off
the roof at their scabby feet--
on occasion they take on
the form of the the lady bugs
slowly devouring the walls of our
house-- chew slowly on
the windowsill like a love letter--
it is a love letter--
it's where i told them i wanted
to die like them--
have my corpse hauled off
like christmas tree--
let's all die without our
feet so no one can trick us into 
running--
would the trees have ran if
we would have given them 
the chance?
would they have known to?
i would have walked out to them
in the crinkled dew &
told them to fly away-- swing
shadow mouth on the hips of
another farm house--
take their bruises from 
our cheek bones--
the trees smack my shoulders 
into plums for not saving
them--
i'm sorry
i'm sorry 
i'm sorry
i say standing
on the tree stump--
i count the rings like
hula hoops around my waist
traced in the driveway--
when i sleep at night i leave
the window open
a crack--
in case the trees are cold
and looking for a pillow
to rest beneath--
what did you do with their
bodies?
take me take me take me
with them--