Growing Ivy

Hold me like ivy on the elongated stem of a palm
Let me stay evergreen with you
Let my slow sap purify you.

We are two:
Your eyes in mine, mine in yours
lust pooled in rain-hazed pupils
on that softly rotting afternoon.

Grass sprouts as much in the soil
and everything that rises from the soil
The forest shivers when you rise
Spreading across the boughs, spreading out singly
—neither a man nor a person, but
a branching darkness. unfolding singly.
If I were eagle, you’d be no sky
only the endless falling through sky.

Every moment renews the weight of all yesterdays.
Let us name this distance, the ocean
and vanish in its naming.

08.2023