planting

i lost a tooth while chewing 
on a comet. stuck a sunflower seed
in its place & waited with my mouth open.
sprawled out in the backyard like
a garden house. angels came & stood
in a perfect circle to inspect my body.
batted their myriad of eyes.
this is what i do for the sake 
of perminance. the empty space
cannot be empty. stuffing cardboard 
into the windy closet. once my gender
was a piece of insulation. then, winter
attested to the thickness of our walls.
i wore nothing but a bra in the mirror.
the mirror softened to silk & all of a sudden
i was screen-printed. the flower took root.
dug deep into my skull with her ankles.
reminded me of other people's sisters.
their distant glory & long hair
& hair-tie around the wrist. 
every street funnel into my mouth.
bees asked each other about yellow.
one great sunflower standing straight.
my tongue's new neighbor. bitter taste
of new families. an emptiness once filled
goes somewhere else. my tooth hole now
waits as a wide open shoe box 
or maybe a hollow dress-pocket.
travels with determination & lust.
what does it mean to contain nothing?
my uterus believes in the future.
fills herself with peach pits.
i tell her it's only a matter of time
before i press a sunflower seed
into her mouth too. spitting out sun.
taking three big gulps of water. 
is it selfish to decide every opening
can hold a ladder? i build another
from steam. another from syrup.
standing in the mouth of a sunflower now.
standing & waiting for sunset 
when the dark makes us all 
thankfully less tangible.