What I like about the trees is how
They do not talk about the failure of their parents
And what I like about the grasses is that
They are not grasses in recovery
And what I like about the flowers is
That they are not flowers in need of empowerment or validation. They sway
Upon their thorny stems
As if whatever was about to happen next tonight
was sure to be completely interesting.

∆ Tony Hoagland

What do you keep "just in case"?

The open hand stretched out to see if raindrops —
that is the most innocent hand of all

∆ Yehuda Amichai (1924 - 2000), from “Autumn, Love, Commercials” in The Poetry Of Yehuda Amichai, edited by Robert Alter

“Oh, body, be held now by whom you love.
Whole years will be spent, underneath these impossible stars,
when dirt’s the only animal who will sleep with you
& touch you with
its mouth.”

— Aracelis Girmay, from Kingdom Animalia