Once I twisted a sticky loquat
from its branch, a yellow weight to
my mouth. Its fruit
 
away. A lost ant burned
my tongue & faded. It made
no difference at all standing there in the
shallow crab grass,
feeling royal, elegant as cross-
stitching
plum-colored
 
x’s into a fine
hatched cloth until the world rammed
into me, a sudden
needle.
 
I was struck there in the simple
weeds & backyard tree fruits,
a glass doll blinking my painted eyes,
coughing elderflowers,
upending my dowry, a showering of
tiny shells, the drowsy way
my life awoke to itself. How my shame
came to nothing but the sugar
I keep after,
this outright nectar,
hacked & bled,
the flowerheads I rub
wherever I can.
 
Recuse me from nothing. For whatever I want
beneath this sunshine stun-gun.
I reach w/ both hands for wherever
the body will fit.