I am not ready to die yet: magnolia tree

going wild outside my kitchen window

& the dog needs a house, &, by the way,

I just met you, my sisters & I

have things to do, & I need

to talk on the phone with my brother. Plant a tree.

& all the things I said I’d get better at.

In other words, I am not ready to die yet

because didn’t we say we’d have a picnic

the first hot day, I mean,

the first really, really hot day?

Taqueria. & swim, kin,

& mussel & friend, don’t you go, go, no.

Today we saw the dead bird, & stopped for it.

& the airplanes glided above us. & the wind

lifted the dead bird’s feathers.

I am not ready to die yet.

I want to live longer knowing that wind