Nobody owns anything but everyone is rich - for what greater wealth can there be than cheerfulness, peace of mind, and freedom from anxiety? ~Thomas More
She won't let caretakers cut down wildflowers
living under the hedge at the boundary edge
of her very small plot in its very small slot
in the unending rows of homes in repose,
in which sameness is virtue and uniqueness is vitriol.
Rebellion is not trivial, in fact it is evil;
how dare you suppose, or try to expose
the snugly fit knots designed by despots;
the ones who make pledge, and use every sharp wedge
to split off the capers of the few troublemakers!
Epilogue: The woman who loved wildflowers has disappeared
and no one remembers her, or if she even existed at all.
Reading Thomas More
at a bar in Prospect Park,
when she said
“Do you have an extra pen?”
That tarot reading didn’t last long
I don’t even particularly
believe in that kind of witchcraft
but she got me to admit
things I didn’t even know I knew.
She’s in California now
I am in her Brooklyn apartment
sitting on her hardwood floor,
trying to stop her cat
from eating paint.
I’m in Atlanta now,
she is vapor in the air,
I can taste the Two of Cups
if I breathe in deep
on Wednesday evenings.