trout

A Woman Scorned

Karlo Mila

1.

I can feel
your face
turning away from me
a new leaf
towards a new sun

I imagine her
turning your
starch into
sugar

light energy
into chemical energy
into sweet glucose bonds

the magic
of photosynthesis

I am a fool
if I do not see
this is what life
is made of

this is the air
that we breathe.

2.

Your limbs
are not indifferent
to my body
but I see the sway
away
from shade

irretrievably
kinked
into your profile

each bend
a branching out

a search for fairer
weather

3.

I imagine
you felled.

some sweet Maori girl
will do it, with totara legs
and weeping willow eyes

I imagine
you sawed
in half

someone
counting the rings

each ring
thinking
she was the beginning
and end to her own
story

not knowing
circumference
perimeter
bounds
limits
were shaped
by the one
who went before.

Each of us
Babushka dolls
swallowed
by the other