July 

I set a bowl of milk out 
For my heart to drink. You slept 
All my life inside the mountain.
Ate quartz & shale. I shaved my head
Into a mason jar & watched it turn
Silver. Breakfasting under a waterfall.
Which one of your pets 
Died first? How old were you when
You first tried to pocket the moon?
A thief, I have always been prone 
To summertime. Saved my own egg shells
For a future ritual. I use Venus  
as a quarter sometimes.
I’ll be the gumball machine 
If you’ll watch me descend. 
Nothing beautiful is sturdy.
We broke our legs & spent all the orange.
Emptied swimming pools 
with our longing. Nightfall heavy
& thick with cicada wings. 
Could we have kissed 
Like tree branches 
or deliberate 
As a movie screen? I’ll never know 
So I come here. Swallow weights 
Known only by cloud families. 
Watch my father spend himself 
Above a factory. Rain & dust.
Your ghost smells like lavender
& corn husks.