PAGE HILL STARZINGER





I SAY TO MY UNBORN CHILD


Division is swell. You are a part of me
even though you split—.

A throat joins two mouths.

The forest around us, a dense block of

dark green occluded tourmaline. Moss
creeps up tree trunks like fur. A voice

can emerge from one mouth, before it

enters the other mouth.


The understory smudged with leaf shadow,
the ground bruised purple-brown with tree

litter. The vessel between us is an opening

that collapses, unless we live there.
This

is a landscape pregnant with the aroma
of pine, the remnants of rime, salty liquid

marrow of mine.
Gnarled cedars, Cryptomeria

burn like incense, drop ash as they ember.

Its seeds, like sparks, chambered in
pinecone scales. I finger the cool fog

for a vanishing point. Don't evaporate.

Isn't it a matter of perspective?

An illusion. Roots buckle the stone, weathering.
We converge in other

manners? Gravity has no weight

here.
We prop open the passage

with pure phantom energy.
Therefore the throat. Yes, the throat.






AUTOCORRECT: TWO