lapis

i saw the other planets 
& they all had poets. different
languages. different trees &
ways the dead are remembered. 
always someone giving history 
a jukebox. i sing in the way 
the wind does. i grew my hair so that,
if i needed, we could use the strands
to write. i have seen the dark
heavy stars beyond the playground.
how, even in their sleeping there is
a poet on the surface. she wears 
stars like set gems. jumps rope 
until the fish come to listen. i see 
the red giants & the expanding brims
of their hats. their poets are 
on fire just i like i am. just like 
the helicopter in the final breaths
of the year. i am hopeful that i will
get to lay down in the gold. hear 
the river say, "that is enough." 
i do not know if i have ever known
what it feels like to have the world 
glint around you. not a spare tooth
but a vein in the blue. instead, i am 
a poet of the fracture. a broken jaw
like a boomerang tossed into 
the sun & back as rain.