by Precious Jonesi suck blood
from the chinese apple,
bloodstained tongue
welcoming the taste of
death as the year passes
painlessly only to
reincarnate as cherry blossoms
do spring after spring/i
take the apple seeds
into me like an old lover,
bittersweet, familiar
as the new lover
who plants new kisses
with new lips,
a brush fire cremating
the neck, shoulders, navel,
ashes, all of me, smoke,
drifting into a new dawn,
ascending, proud and black,
to paradise.
