Amanda Silbernagel

Biodegradable

as in shingle stripping
as in loose petals orbiting
daisy-center sun
we teach ourselves to fall
apart. the mailbox (like the voice box)
generates black energy. when opened:
turns our insides to pillars
of salt. soft skeletons to crumble under periods
line breaks

              widow buys a juicer
              forecasts plummeting immunity
              predicts white blood cells
              will weaken with morale

              and its going to be a cold one
              unless global warming rescues
              with a quieter destruction
                   [we dream in blueprints.
                   fabricate societies on Mars.]

why don't you knead me
bread whimpered when we scavenged for manna-
all that dough and we just kept looking
scrounging fragments
to unfragment starving frames

it's a sacred thing,
sucking poison from paper cuts
Rite Of Passage Number 16:
              Lethal Envelope- your First Opening
the mailbox (the voice box) all over
again, with no return address

like shingles thin petals fall-
soft meteor showers
from her fingers
               i love me...
               i love me not...