What Are Predators but Parasites That Kill You Faster

one conundrum is that you sew

a bunch of ghosts

                together

only to end up with a smaller ghost

—you mend the hem / I’ll tend the holes—

—chomp chomp choke / little bloodclot on the yolk—

thus you deviate as I scrape away

a cleaner spot

Short digression on decorating

the tree: find a woodchipper, feed

in honey, blankets, books. Treasure’s

better decked in ketamine feathers

and wetforever lemons.

—hide us in a pit / rip the furtive flap / the stitched-up gut—

Short digression

on the middle of the desert:

we’re in it.

under OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS

you can put “mimesis”

“snottiness”

“Ouija realness”

and “blinking when forbidden” please

love the desert

squeeze it

take it home

put it in a cage

with what’s left of the ghost—

—even you should admit it’s sweeter

than the pet leech

you used to keep