after Joy Harjo
I am not ready to die yet: magnolia tree
going wild outside my kitchen window
& the dog needs a house, &, by the way,
I just met you, my sisters & I
have things to do, & I need
to talk on the phone with my brother. Plant a tree.Â
& all the things I said Iâd get better at.Â
In other words, I am not ready to die yet
because didnât we say weâd have a picnic
the first hot day, I mean,Â
the first really, really hot day?Â
Taqueria. & swim, kin,Â
& mussel & friend, donât you go, go, no.
Today we saw the dead bird, & stopped for it.
& the airplanes glided above us. & the wind
lifted the dead birdâs feathers.
I am not ready to die yet.
I want to live longer knowing that wind
still moves a dead birdâs feathers.
Wind doesnât move over & say That thingÂ
canât fly. Donât go there. Itâs dead.
No, it just blows & blows lifting
what it can. I am not ready
to die yet. No.Â
I want to live longer.Â
I want to love you longer, say it again,
I want to love you longer
& sing that song
again. & get pummeled by the sea
& come up breathing & hot sun
& those walks & those kids
& hard laugh, clap your hands.
I am not ready to die yet.
Give me more dreams. To taste the fig.
To hear the coyote, closer.
I am not ready to die yet.
But when I go, Iâll go knowing
there will be a next time. I want
to be like the cactus fields
I drove through in Arizona.
If I am a cactus, be the cactus
I grow next to, arms up,
every day, let me face you,
every day of my cactus life.
& when I go or you go,
let me see you again somewhere,
or you see me.
Isnât that you, old friend, my love?
you might say, while swimming in some ocean
to the small fish at your ankle.
Or, Werenât you my sister once?
I might say to the sad, brown dog who follows me down
the street. Or to the small boy
or old woman or horse eye
or to the tree. I know you I knew I know you, too
Iâm saying, could this be what makes me stop
in front of thatdogwood, train whistle, those curtains
blowing in that window. See now,
there go some eyes you knew once
riding the legs of another animal,
wearing its blue sky, magnolia,
wearing its bear or fine
or wolf-wolf suit, see,
somewhere in the night a mouth is singing
You remind me   You remind meÂ
& the heart flips over in the dusky sea of its chest
like a fish signaling, Yes, yes it was me!
&, yes, it was, & you were there, & are here now,
yes, honey, yes hive, yes I will, Jack,
see you again, even if itâs a lie, donât
let me know, not yet, not ever, I need to think
Iâll see you, oh,
see youÂ
again.
kaledo-art
romaincrisis
dailybridgerton
origamiaround
vaporwave
ellievsbear
