To befriend a garden variety of trees

Identify birds by their calls

We lick the nectar from bees’ knees

A tiny sweetness dissolving under our tongues

You slather lotion and smell evergreen:

You’re a garland     You’re an effigy

Sprouted lentils I could not keep from wilting

Poppies dropping petals from the desk

I dreamed we careened off a cliff

I asked if you believed in angels

You said you believed in putti—

That they should be placed on buildings


When I can’t sleep for the ghost knocking  

at our closet door     I imagine myself

A mushroom teasing out a cloud of spores