Dendrochronologies

the honeydew pollen translates
a slurring wind
……………………listen for nonlinear hours;

into centuries of sealed lips
parting open like buds of jewelweed

a seven armed water elm paints
crepuscular rays;

under the sixth branch, reaching west,
……………………………………………my mother’s search
for sexuality in each pileated knot; I trace

mottles in weathered bark,
mapping a parallel gust,

………………………………..my breast to my belly,
……………………………………………………..underneath every follicle;

………………………………………………………………………………………..this as drifts of fallen pine, ………………………………………………………………………………………..dashes of deciduous

…………………………………………blooms, scatter at the feet of a black squirrel,
…………………………………………………………………………………………who scurries over the elm’s
………………………………………………………………roots, gathering parceled codes, all lips
…………………………………………………………………………lined with repressions to love a hip
………………………………………………………………………………………………………….with an open mouth;

………………………………………………………………soon

………………………………………………..the squirrel gathers these accumulations in her

……………………………………………………………..claws up the dappled canopy

……………………………………………………………..to a silk bleeding sky.

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Julia Kooi Talen is a poet and essayist currently living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.