36 hours

the corpse flower blooms
for only 24-36 hours
resembles a human turned inside out 
all frill & green lipped
gigantic
a pot in the living room
where the television used to be
i bring you 
& we sit to watch
the corpse flower come alive
arms around each other
braced for the unfurling
the seed
i tell you
has to have been someone's
skull 
us watching
what happens when 
memories are covered in dirt
& told about humidity
the green house we've made
of our living room 
sweat glossy on our foreheads 
waiting for the corpse flower
praying to the corpse flower
you tell me that when you 
die you want to be planted
in this same pot
like a television 
in the living room
where all your loved ones 
can come wait for you to bloom
monster tongue flower
mammoth inverted iris
the corpse flower begins
crawling up from the soil
prickly neck
i think
this is what i look like
turned inside out
horrifying & 
full of yellow
pollen tendrils 
we hold each other tighter
afraid of the corpse flower
but we have to keep watching
a vigil until 
it slowly folds itself
back into the dirt
staring all day
the sound of static
as it declines
all that bloom for
only 36 hours
is that what we look?
little pink buds turned 
green fringed florescence
tucking knees
into chests
laying down in the earth
where the television 
once was