marketers place rocks
in the rubbers of slingshots
define need: your dad
can beat up my dad
muscular and well-rested
yours can afford fresh vegetables
oh plentiful soil
I call upon the wisdom of worms
slithering underground civilization
thrives on the waste of buckets
inside the firmament of dirt
(originally published in Pomona Valley Review, Summer 2019)
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
pleading with a red delicious begging god for good
even though I cannot process Jesus I still chew and
spit seed and you walk over the guts of me with your
shoes on sidewalk in the sweltering August of laying
in grass whispering love between dandelions so much
we’re sprouting from dirt in ugly ways all thorn
and bloom overgrown with each other there are
no gloved hands around anymore to pull us out
(originally published in Bluestem, Spring 2017)