by Peach Delphine

body flowers in its own time form unfolds
as it must some for sun some for moon and moth
breeze tasting of salt Gulf never far
form is motion fluidity words slide
from wetness into air we hold hands
as if we just met body flowers in due time
silvering first you’ve carried more than you should
flatwoods mangroves palmetto no elevation
yet we have known another precipice
each of us alone and then together
a dizzy edge wind without voice

learn a word link it to the chain stout litany
pale of sharpened edges recitation maintains
internal resistance body endures what it must
words are a flow bulwark of current interior tide defying
moon or sun no deity treads in that place hand scoured
what is learned there flow momentum refuge within come to tongues
flowering when we speak of this place only the repatriated can hear
silence subsiding into tide out of endless chatter we become flame
once demanded of sky and breath we become a pause
time of eye time of hand time of body subsiding into word
buckler to hand and heart

broken as in handle less cup sanded smooth
word wedges beneath tongue body sings itself into disassociation
there is a wire pulsing in jaw something taps into that vein of heat
something speaks in my voice but it is not other not
what reveals we are always incipient with the blow
enthusiasm our defense intimate tendrilled speaking of it still
in the angular shards splintering on brittle iron
same shiver when you trace contours of my back
with your nails there is no cartography for this
or the echoing other on the tangled surface that grew
in absence thicket comes to reclaim
another scarred landscape
shade claims breeze

Peach Delphine is a queer femme poet from Tampa in la florida.