substitution..unleaved.

The sticky ant-walked nubs of peony
buds showing lurid lippy shiners
under prim sepals
for the latest red bonk unfurling
under the skin of your headfirst
ass over teakettle
tumbles.

The upthrust females from the mossy cowl
on slim aspens here here there along the treeline
for the wiry spray of hair
on your intersection of head and bed
those humid nights
you spent between us.

* * *

Found a sheet of paper under the amethyst paperweight I inherited/stole from my mother next to my neglected desktop computer with the seeds of these two poem-lets.

I've been doing a lot of substituting since Aa was born but haven't written as many since she's nearly finished breastfeeding.

They were the perfect mouthful to mutter myself in the car or in people's spare bedrooms and constitute the only times, besides the poems I composed/slashed for the eight-line jobbies required for Poetry in Motion submissions, that I've written 'short.'

I've stopped numbering these substitutions, having collected them all to submit for Prairie Fire's Bliss Carmen Poetry Prize a month or two ago.

(And while I wouldn't want to encourage anyone truly talented to submit, given how deeply and shamefully I covet that ring, do consider submitting, even if only to ensure that you get a copy of the issue with my prize-winning poem...)