aloe
those teeth look sharp but you’re not here to hurt anyone.
au contraire, how you care—your right arm for the scrape
on my knee, your left arm for my love’s stoveburned wrist
it’s no problem you say with each node an anole you’ll
grow them all back & if we feel bad you remind us the
bitter truth is you were here thirteen million years before us
& you’ll outlast thirteen million more & while I know
you cheerful in chipped terracotta I’ve seen you grown
monstrous, five feet of serrated grace by the sea so I know
these aren’t pleasantries or platitudes & yet I am knifeshy.
it is in my nature, just like it’s in yours to casually sacrifice
what we feel irreplaceable for the sake of moving the plot
along—quit being so human about it you chide & I
butcher your sweet green limbs for our follies: you bleed
& we heal, you bleed & we heal.
snaketongue
from dorm to duplex you’ve been there with your kindness
of spears & your strapping adaptability while I was still
nerves & neuroses about tending to your kin: which
window is your favourite? tap water or tea? how late do
you sleep? a beginner’s friend, patiently amiable while I
fretted my fingers black & now I am old hat, my nails
veteraned with rinds of soil my voice scale-smooth from
singing to you my grip sure as shears as I slice up a
rhizome—I know now we all need repotting sometimes,
that not every plant wants water each day, that to divide is
not to conquer but to propagate & still you surprise me
my gentlest mentor, still you push new shoots up from the
ground when I’m not looking.
Originally published in hortus animarum: a new herbal for the queer heart.
Sienna Tristen is an author, poet, and literary organizer living in Treaty 3 territory who explores queer platonic partnership, the nonhuman world, and mythmaking in their work. Among their published works are the award-winning literary fantasy duology The Heretic’s Guide to Homecoming, the poetry chapbook hortus animarum: a new herbal for the queer heart, and poems in Augur Magazine, Plenitude, and the League of Canadian Poets’ Poetry Pause. When the sun is up, they work with The Word On The
Street Toronto to showcase the coolest in Canadian & Indigenous literature.