Flora

    photo of understory pinanga palms casting shredded light and shade

    tiger nest //

    laron

    pulse, on paper-smoke and shadowing; a word
    kept embers leaping, or whittling laced attention

    when the swarming cloud was passing out and in
    to the conic torchlight, flint-yellow, on a smudged

    and charcoal night; the humid heart grew lungs
    at the carpal joint, let choirs through the rupture

    soft cedar traces wrinkles into the maiden mask
    of the moon; the flickering phase transfixes them

    //

    🌔

    photo of fuzzy begonia leaves, vivid green with streaks of white and curled over to show velvety deep magenta undersides

    feelings //

    the good shit

    for Petals in her present pleasure zone
    she’s rolling round inside the one, the good shit
    the fine, the best, ye olde Platonic shit
    no hydroponic, just sanctified dank

    under Sumatran sun; for snub-nosed exodus
    in summers mud, her laurel wreath of sticky bud
    up drug botanical by trashy magazine
    like chocolate pharma-chronic feuilletine

    and toke thine truffled nugget whilst ye may
    my silk-eared pig for liplined valentine
    today her carrot conversation hearts the play
    her eats the emptiness of tools as feels divine

    //

    E=m11!1

    //

    🌒

    photo of a two vines growing out of a bed of begonias, up a white wall, somewhat entangled

    crossing //

    close-up photo of a begonia female flower stem after the flower petals have fallen and left behind ripening seed pods

    ovarian //

    Socrates: by Hera, it is a beautiful resting place

    this platanos tree is hugely wide-spreading (amphilaphes) and high (uphelos); and of the chaste tree, the height and the dense shade are entirely beautiful; and as she holds on (echein) to the cusp (akme) of her full bloom, she supplies such a sweet-smelling place; and also the graceful stream is flowing under the platanos tree with exceedingly cool water, by the witness (tekmairomai) of my foot

    and by the girls and the statues it seems to be the temple (hieros/hieron) for some kind of Nymphs and of Achelous; and again, if you wish, the good breath (eupnous) of the place, how sufficient (agapeton) and violently pleasurable (sphodros hedu) it is; summery and clear, it responds to the chorus of cicadas; and most subtle (kompsos) of all is the grass, that it has grown (phuein) in gently to the steep slope, sufficient to hold, for one who has laid down their head, altogether beautifully

    so it has been the best stranger guide for you, O beloved Phaedrus

    // 230β - 230ξ

    held

    i grasp, i grasp, i fumble empty air
    my fever head green tea cat litter ache
    my cannot place the growing failure make
    my pillow eats the grass until i wake

    //

    pause for illness

    Socrates: (cont.) that it has grown (phuein) in gently to the steep slope, sufficient to hold, for one who has laid down their head, altogether beautifully

    // 230ξ

    ὅτι ἐν ἠρέμα προσάντει ἱκανὴ πέφυκε κατακλινέντι τὴν κεφαλὴν παγκάλως ἔχειν

    //

    of all
    the most subtle
    that of the grass
    that in gently
    to the steep
    sufficient has grown
    for one who laid down their head
    altogether beautifully
    to hold

    //

    photo of maidenhair fern, bright green fronds against a shadowy background

    maidenhair //

    Socrates: (cont.) and most subtle (kompsos) of all is the grass

    // 230ξ

    πάντων δὲ κομψότατον τὸ τῆς πόας

    //

    sound

    returning traces undergrounding borne
    as open airing round, roots longing light
    commemorating leaves inhuman voice
    midsummers dream, a choir, the covered face

    //

    photo of a way through a bamboo forest

    way //

    scent

    no sweeter nothing making than a flower
    sustaining tension, fluttering on the wing
    Papilio memnon round lemon-balmy vervain
    by ghost of anther’s end, the probing hour

    //

    Socrates: (cont.) and as she holds on (echein) to the cusp (akme) of her full bloom, she supplies such a sweet-smelling place

    // 230β

    καὶ ὡς ἀκμὴν ἔχει τῆς ἄνθης, ὡς ἂν εὐωδέστατον παρέχοι τὸν τόπον

    //

    the mallow sea

    sleeping moons in a plastic spoon
    slip them into the watcher’s tea
    undertow and the lunar noon
    float away on a mallow sea

    loo, loo-loo, the empty sea
    loo, loo-loo, the mallow

    a fooly tumbles on her head
    a froggy for the willow tree
    fall down into the green grass bed
    sail away on a bumble bee

    loo, loo-loo, the bumble bee
    loo, loo-loo, the mallow

    a fairy’s wing in every room
    a pocket for the marble sky
    fluff the pillow and sweet the broom
    softer than a glow worm

    loo, loo-loo, the marble sky
    loo, loo-loo, the mallow

    sleeping moons in a plastic spoon
    slip them into the watcher’s tea
    undertow and the lunar noon
    float away on a mallow sea

    loo, loo-loo, the empty sea
    loo, loo-loo, the mallow

    //

    🌕

    //

    mallowtonin

    &

    pour notre
    voyeur

    //

    hag-seed
    4 all

    //

    Socrates: (cont.) and of the chaste tree, the height and the dense shade are entirely beautiful

    // 230β

    τοῦ τε ἄγνου τὸ ὕψος καὶ τὸ σύσκιον πάγκαλον

    //

    Vitex Agnus-castus or chaste tree was associated with rituals for Hera and Demeter and medicinally, since ancient times, with women’s reproductive health. The name of the tree (he agnos/agnos) means sacred, holy, pure, chaste.

    //

    hark

    to hear the tonic of their nightly play
    as love is changing eyes in light of day
    and who the lover, who beloved, held
    as shade made young again, the poet shade

    sweet length possessed translucency of leaves
    and valley shelters longing’s grave delight
    how sheer the veil betwixt the true is made
    and barefoot is their tender-stepping sight

    inscript resounding hollow as a tomb
    body beholding spring again and bright
    green heart grows whole again, the tree un-felled
    for midnight girls around a golden wound

    //

    🌔

    //

    stable horses
    night rising
    wave

    //

    my hollow

    your darkness and your might invisible
    to me, my pale eyes sun shy, your body
    at noon, under pitched roof these lines
    of wood i measure, cut, re-stood you up

    to feed an appetite for shade, i am
    a miracle for trees; and what i build i must
    maintain, stretching, pressing, inhaling
    every season warping edges, exhale down

    shelter; my daily coir, your angle slant
    corporeality; my hollow here
    and where to see you, if, once i’d grown
    my fill of this inside, the outside known

    by doorways, windows, the tunnels ants dig
    out foundation for the sponge, this marrow
    empty nest of the mud wasp, left dust
    unsettled; your crevice, my cusp, bright-daggered

    lapses; your love letters, my red rose
    replies; a jepun tree grows over my grave
    shaggy roots to the unscripted bone, home
    to fallen flowers light on my unmet nature

    //

    Socrates: (cont.) wasn’t this the tree to which you were leading us?

    // 230α

    ἆρ᾽ οὐ τόδε ἦν τὸ δένδρον ἐφ᾽ ὅπερ ἦγες ἡμᾶς;

    //

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