I Love My Life

cheating on death
my kite a dragonfly
tied to a spider’s thread

the spider that swallowed a caterpillar
that had lassoed herself in silk

I paint a rock
with crusty lichen, leprous
granular bacterial blue
in merger with fungus

and dream dreams
that harm no one
I love my life
cheating on death
tragedy can’t tell

my terror from your pain
grief’s brief allele
or methyl twigs
from helical switches

And the bovine
after meat and milk
who give of their lives to my teeth

their enamel my jaws
I sit at the table