izzy

December 2014:
~ 99m to go
I built you a house on stilts
I covered it in climbing vines
so it would burst into flower in the spring

it seemed like a good idea at the time.

February 2019:
you’re weeping at the edge of the water
and even if there was something I could do
I don’t know what it is.

wavelets lap at your ankles
the bougainvillaea rustles your hair
the jasmine puts an arm around you
and the wisteria watches and weeps.

December 1999:
we learnt about photosynthesis today
I think it means plants are kind of alive
in a way

maybe that’s why mum talks to the roses.

February 1999:
we learnt about the Earth spinning
around the sun
I felt dizzy thinking about it

I couldn’t think of an argument to prove
that the Earth is round
without using modern technology

February 2014:
happy Valentine’s Day.

no, really.

December 2019:
~89m to go
the house has turned into
a thing entirely of its own

we really got our roots in.
the roots really got into us, too.

*

sarah

All the tears and the raging
The fear and the falling
All the aching and burning
And gnawing, searing sorrow
Have left me as whole as the day I was born
And search though I did for a crack or a burn
I found my skin taut and tight as a drum
And all that I felt as a flurry of thunderbolts
Turned out to be nothing but a bumblebee’s sting

*