Green, and green, and suddenly
a light trapped in a soft shell.
Above the city of Jericho,
the chickens are coming home
to roost. I rewrite history
and keep the apple where no hand
can reach it. Sinai because
your breath is fear. Pisgah
because your touch is hurt.
I am scared of all that I am
capable of. To break a body
is to know it
for what it truly is. You say this
is love, so I surrender my wants
at your feet. To know a body
is to break it wide open, and I have grown
to love everything about nothing.
Out in the wilderness,
the guard dog is eating a thunderstorm
and the night’s skin is an eye
sore. Damn the consequences.
I trace the lone graph of my body
and study its careful intricacies. Then,
like you, I lift the nothingness of me
above my head and tip it over
the blade of rocks. I do not want to bury anything
I do not want to bury.
Copyright © 2025 by Ameen Animashaun. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on October 30, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.