tossed about by the winds of change
I struggle to find a way to feign
some measure of lasting paradise
which I tried to, in my heart, retain

but now I am as desert bluffs
dry as bones kissed by the sun
land gone fallow for far too long
ravaged by everyone

hollow out my rib cage
and make me your living garden
flowers poking through the cracks
where once fierce breath exhaled

and I'll water their roots with all my blood
no ink for summoned scribes
to write falsehoods about my deeds
just petals falling to mark the time

you'll visit me, won't you?

I will live on, yet not as you do
for the roots become my veins
and the stems woven together my skin
my tears the soft-falling rain

and one day when erosion's sweet breath
has taken the last of the world that we know,
may my flesh have merged with all the earth
and we be twin caves deep down below