Like Plants
the bath is filled up with honeysuckle and forsythia
coral cactus grows in crests and fans
alstroemeria and houseleeks sprout out from cracks in porcelain
plants and flowers leak out and the bath breaks down destructively
the same way i do through catabolism and isolation
my time here with you is pro tem
but we can look backward just as we look forward
these plants will outgrow the bath and
i’ll document the shape of each and every petal, stem, leaf
before i drain the tub and separate them into new homes and places to be
let’s attempt to propagate the leftovers,
but let’s move on, forward
may you, too, grow and move forward
may your new horizon be far and bright like the sun and the moon and every single star
in our vast and lonely universe
so strange to think
we are so small and so rare
and just a single beat in time
and yet at some point, our rhythms were in sync and our soil the same
i’ll remember how when i met you,
the cosmos, in a dull rumbling roar, said
right now, just right now,
you will exist together
© Sabrynne Buchholz 2022
Originally appeared in Bear Country
