Bragging anniversaries
counted up: ten years? Twenty years?
repeat
Another ordinary day when someone was born
and close by that annoying song everyone chants in unison
with candles lighting up their smiling faces,
the burning single fire
perched atop seven minute frosting
lit for ceremony
da da da da, dear so and so,
da da da daaa to you
Before you can count them
another chalks itself up
Now May evaporates
with the stillness of birdsound missing
The buzzing of sharp machines fill the void
Compared to two years ago, before the fire
they used to swarm
I used to panic and smash the huge ants
dragging around a black segment full of yellow pudding
There was always a hot day in May
when they descended, their wings shorn,
looking for the cool wet wood
to lay their eggs
but now
Insects are so few they’re now individuals
I can count the bees on the buds
The plants arching up straight towards May sunshine
the ducks already spent with flapping and quacking
embarrassment gestures after he mounts her
now she perches somewhere
staring into the bushes
a sitting duck
her eggs under her
she’s still fertile she still has it
Imagine
wanting
the bleeding
the cramping
the destiny
Now the day
the May
slips through the stillness of morning sun
