ORCHARD Pulse Vein, Burst Jugular / Her Simple Touch Of Myth / Last Meal Before Change Heidi Kraay

Heidi Kraay

pockets of skin cough between teeth

tart slice mindful lips

each hollowed candy orb a piece of history

racing through orchards over grass barefoot

watch for roots clawing up and all the ways we change it’s how a thing grows

into sky into moon and on and on a thousand years

bitty worms wrap round bruises

salivate in this shell

a bubble of meat

like rare steak drip bloody

oh yes the way we change from sugar crust, pie bites, caramel melting over to leaking out death on soil

Heidi Kraay

we let skin go rough aging with us wrinkles weight my gut rip into flesh

the stringy bits fall down her face tracing taste buds hands get sappy

inside, autumn everywhere raw feet land leaf droppings while fated moon glows desire out my throat

tangy bites layer through teeth sticking lip to tongue

this winter white day incongruous to eating apples finds our bellies all Sunday toes to ears

flakes fall big like they’ll hold us forever in the measured way we ponder each fraction of a nibble grabbing smooth particles slow gnashing jaws

Heidi Kraay

white walls like an ice cave but warm here tacky floor like late night dive bar

lope about making tunnels, sweet work a week I’d spend here a month if I knew time

push body sack up with fingering legs my follicles taste the granules if I could conjure my next life here I would

I’ll leave before then and find a tree

inside this history of universe delicate star shapes wish for landscapes beyond gardens

tremendous brown heads cocoon inside pockets like woody larvae acid toughness, poison blobs

white blankets encase me not trapped, home cozy in delectable sheets

avoid where stem starts to core a downward pointing stump duck under, stay a while longer

zip on scuba gear, dive under surface a glimpse at dancing turtles cascading through time

until holes meet reluctant caterpillar eats trail no more meat in my fruit