Another Dream of Death and Born Again in the Light of Self
by Brandi George
Another Dream of Death: Montana Vermiculite Contamination
Now wings gather in the heavens
. no wait black lungs barrage
the sky with fibrous edges
. they flap assault mirages
. of vermiculite sparks swirl
in conic gusts the thin
. & newly dead wear suits or pearls
that hang from boney limbs
in Libby Montana from a mine
asbestos-contaminated
vermiculite was sold nation-wide
when Grace & Company purchased
the mine they knew the risks then hundreds
in Libby died of lung
diseases mesothelioma
asbestosis & now among
the dead are miners residents
folks across the country
who couldn’t trace their cause of death
to Grace & Company
asbestos forms over the rocks
like giant spider webs
the fibrous crystals metamorphic
are the enemy
of breath meanwhile my sweater hides
my nose & mouth while bodies
chase their errant lungs like kites
two women crash then seize
me by the ponytail I shout
but the women’s lung-less
mouths & mouth-less lungs are silent
. their lips flex like a fish’s
Born Again in the Light of the Self, Which Is Death
Death is made of cords umbilical
but wishing to be more than emptiness
to be the foxes drinking from a puddle
our grief amalgamates inside the darkness
Death commands the firefly billions
to spark & everything is made of stars
& stars in everything the dandelions
are burning hills & burning meadows yards
some nights Death can’t breathe & panicked huffs
into a chiffon dress or fallow field
& once Death crouched inside a bluff
then hid Herself inside Achilles’s shield
Death recalls a girl who was crushed by horses
how She swept her through the valley limitless
*
Alone on the swing set
my lover went away
my clover turned to clay
my plover-heart cawed May
when Death wintered my body
with Her boney thumb
now I can only see one color at a time
lightning chains
sky blue mirror puddle
dark blue salvia twilight
red berry robin
orange dead leaf maple
gold sun hornet
white cloud glare
spring green new shoots
dark green pine grass
last flesh tone mine
each color is a nest I pray to
in the garden behind our house
hornets sting until
I’m a barbed & yellow god
Mycelium Empress of
Harmonious Darkness
freeze me over
*
Alone one night her body crashes brown
hair sandy her beach a grave’s unmarked
vault pills swallows mother when
marlin songs cradle polyphonic
whales gather clouds storm jet
cracking sky livid the dinosaurs’
cumulus hooks red becomes Death
becomes red hooks cumulous
dinosaurs the livid sky cracking
jet storm clouds gather whales’
polyphonic cradle songs marlin
when mother swallows pills vault
unmarked graves a beach her sandy hair
brown crashes body her night one alone
*
On a park bench
at the end of time
I find my spores in Death’s fairy ring
purple breathing from gills
a Blue-Foot Psilocybe
. Galerina of Death
why do I love Mycelium of Night?
Her stars are ever born or burning out
in the cemetery after sunset
. I stand polymorphous with the cap of truth
around my stalks
the basidia of righteousness
the volva of faith
scales of peace
convex inrolled & velvety
my armor orange spotted emerald
after the wildflowers have gone
mushrooms usher the dead
into red sparks from shadow
*
After I climb out the window & leave
my mother’s house forever
. polyphonic riddle-
shocked distorted
a sound wave
stripped of grace I wander
. through the forest
pine constellation water orchard sun bough
. dear Death take my body for your own
I want to become something else because
the doll thing that I am
. porcelain prey virgin petal
. pearl baby is dead
Because damsel corpse
princess bait is dead