Spinal blade

Poison hemlock passes for wild carrots.

The death cap mushroom masquerades

as edible white Caesar. There are crosses

engraved in the face of a pine, not etched

by lovers, but by a worm. Dutch elm disease

forces a tree to plug its xylem tissue

until it starves. Your face looked different

when we had sex. When I touched your ear

on the sidewalk, your jaw relaxed. Of course

I ate the carrot, the mushroom you gave me.

Of course I swam behind the stingray.