lynn nguyen fister

tree silhouettes

so the sun sat on the hill for a bit to yawn

horizon a many plump persimmon

drenches the water sky boar head leg

in orange

and so the dead trees darkened pale

just a persimmon drawing each curve

with water paint

your stark body so sex

dry wood.

cormorants or common moorhens

or who cares you common men?

go to bed on elegant black bodies

 as the sun disappears now.

you soup it.

the lardy moon brews raccoons

who sleep in your bed

why do you allow this in the dark?

make filthy branches

make finger hair.

now.

silhouettes can string me

as belly frogs bellow like duck

and holy fog horns blue

the brown bats munch on biting things

as barred owls beckon for lost loves

before they eat them.

the pitcher plant swallows

this ol’ dirt path

soil fried by sun a dusty bowl orange

the last rain water pools

in depressions

and for a damselfly and skipper

the fell leaf is a houseboat

in a swamp wood

summer they seek and peek and woo

this a spoon come dusk and swoon

the crickets toe their fiddles.

ho hum young boys.

young girls ho hum.

just hum her.

she’d better it.

a mosquito skips nonchalantly

across the muck skin of the water

skips along la la la

to find the lair of pitcher plants

who widen to die 

to dissect insects along the red road.

i want to drink blood we both say

draw blood from flesh

savor it my mouth

the mosquito sees lime green

but the vermillion is what

wraps him in net

this looks delicious indeed

lip smear across ruddy cheeks

and perfume so bold

this stink summer.

i will come into your mouth

the mosquito decides

carnivorous as ever

the pitcher plant swallows

the damselfly teases though

hopping from one head

of pitcher plant to another.

la la la… we war.

we pray for water.

but just hum we say.

all the cicadas at once.

not-so-much friend kudzu

and across the pines

southern magnolias and american beech trees

with silver fraying bark

across dappled ringworm skin

across lumpy.

“and look! tumor trees!”

courtney a. butterpea says,

i do have to agree.

butterpea and me among thee, o kudzu.

here this tuberous vine lays spread

lewd lavender flowers whisper  names

i will have everything

i will possess everything

everything is mine.

and they do.

until i wear her myself.

a luscious kudzu coat o boy

wrap me up in your gift

hundreds of lily pad hands

plaster my face in paper maché

like m. steph did

tongue me with glue mouth

tongue me us paper faces

why dontcha?

tongue me but

but why is she so bully?

kudzu buries me deep in leaf

with her hands on hands on hands

on everywhere.

epiphytes such as spanish moss

i once had a neighbor cheira

who would share me a plant tale

about the live oak trees

pacing our shady street

i tell her i like spanish moss

how i envy the oak

but she tells me how they get there

how the well-known spanish conquistador

wants to kiss to kiss to kiss

pretty indigenous girl

come here he beckons

but she seam and not know spanish.

and so she squirrels up an oak

and how he follows

scurry after her as they

jump branch to branch

open limb from open limb

as cows and loons

 hog and lamb

do and moan

o poor conquistador

so clumsy with his a-footing

trips and falls poor sir.

weep for him

oh his losses

his silvery moss beard

catching on acorns and branches

a tangled noodly mess

his rabbit face limps

he-mouth pursed for fish kisses.

long leaf pine

so so so so sew tall and skinny and upright.  so stand be pride like that so you can be gutted and fell by ax by person.  so shred your flesh in thin strips with fingernails. newspaper in that machine slice slice munch munch.  so need turpentine and tar and paper for poetry and ink and watercolors and lies and tales.  so need to take a knife and slice skin so watch it ooze out the muck. sew cut sew cut sew cut me.

after all you grow so fast and taproot firm run the depths of dirt of clay of limestone and of who cares about the cavities in which the lineage of the red cockaded woodpeckers reside. but all that is left after the pillage after the fuck is your taproot left body-less. you will be drained and all to remember you by is in the mossy soil: it is your sap stain.

strangler fig tree

oh little slender tree

oh your little pretty frond

may i hold your palm in my grasp

oh i want to just hold you

let me climb around your trunk

my branch arms scaffold your body

tie you up and caress you.

let us entangle.

you can pluck my sex

when the fruit comes

bite into the flesh swell fig

with skin fuzz and pink seed meat.

it is my offering.

(so open mouth you.

you better say

body of christ amen

or else your children.)

let me just hold you just right there

where the warblers can perch in your belly.

stitching my limbs into your fabric.

(o you stay put right

so i can strangle you.)

you sure a pretty florida palm.