Lily of Quito

Beneath the sweat

Of my dive-bombing seventy-year-old flesh, my cradle of rib,

Destruction’s hollow

Bell tolled.

I begged you for safety,

Tied lilies to my garden fence,

Seven pledges

White and raw, spread out

Like lightening.

When our fences shook

With the promise of sabotage,

You came.

The lilies disappeared, their

Scents rattled through my flesh. Cranks of

Malice retreated through the high pines,

Would never be heard again.

I gifted you my best

Guitar and brought you clementines.

You fasted, threaded flowers

Through your blood. Next, I think

I’ll beg for peace, beg for our blasted horizons, I’ll

Beg for worlds undone, worlds we’ve watched burn,

Worlds on their backs squirming, I’ll beg for them to be

Cut open, histories streaming,

Then remade,

Sown up with lilies.