New poetry by Semira Davis.

Into the garden

come into the garden where your mother
and uncle lean the bamboo corpses
into triangle arches for the beans

the garden where the earth reads your palm
and the life line the love line the heart line
are dirty and mud

come into the garden and watch your mother
bleed into loose denim overalls wearing only
a bra for underwear and nothing inside

the garden full of unmade fishponds
gurgling scratch up chickens
and the smell of fresh depression

come into the garden and sit dangling
on the swing in silent thought of your lost
virginity while your uncle waters the lettuce

the garden where your mother lives
next to the pig sty where your mother lives
for she does not enter the house anymore

then come into the garden and find
the maggots and the bones among
the weeds beneath the fallen bean arches

the garden you’ve forgotten
because you have been forgotten
because things weren’t left forgotten

and you’ve come into the garden
with a barrel with a lighter
with a diary and you don’t want to read

Semira Davis, 2019

Spinoff poetry editor Ashleigh Young welcomes submissions for The Friday Poem at thefridaypoem@gmail.com