free stone peach

i was made to have my heart removed
without a fight.
my sinews like chickadee words 
gone into their tinsel.
not enough winter to make
the peach trees ring.
i put the stone in your mouth & walk
as far as your legs will carry you
into an archway of ribs.
i did not put up a fight. why did i
not wrestle the milk in the moon?
why did i not show my claws?
instead, i let him at my guts
like a feed trough. pigs with their 
wild blackberrying eyes. teeth
falling out as they feast. giving you
exactly what you asked for.
the men who stand at any butter dish
& count the flies as coins.
you took me for the bird feeder i was.
underneath the oak tree 
that's now just a ghost throat. 
i could have made you a necklace 
from all my fingerbones 
i lost to your can opener. let's not
blame everything on hunger. instead,
let's look at conquest. whose body
is named & orchard & what
the orchard trees call themselves.
i am the water worker. sugar's last name.
you were just a thumb pressed
through flesh, searching
for the amulet. for the heart.
there mine was. already loose.