i keep running fingertips
along the sunflower of my skin
like a path,
or an exit
forgive me if ever i follow the stem
tracing lines to exhale –
if for a moment
ponds of dewdrops blossoming pink
i had such steady hands painting forests
i don’t know what
changed
gnashed and shattered leaves
are changed too, though,
seasons make sure of that
winter strips each orchid to a memory
year over
year
but for all of the wreckage that lays
on that path,
there is a promise of petals
returning again
this fragile body is bare
but it will be pink
forgive me –
some chemical blight
will always look to the stem
and imagine how it feels
to greet earth at its root
i do not know where the years will find me
or if the seasons will steady their hands
enough to grasp that life is
and will be
perennial
j marvain is a transfem creative from delaware. she believes all mammals are just different shapes of rat, and all emotions are in tune with shifts in nature. to her, there is no greater love than community and solidarity.