Carrie DeBacker, Don't Take Me For Pomegranate (gouache on paper)
She chose to live
on wildflowers and clover
she chose to drink
mud collected in ditches
some might question my choice to use
the word chose
she chose not to take her injections
she chose to live on the road
her eyes so blue
everything she sees and doesn’t
drowns
~
it’s possible I will never see her
she always moves farther away
while she wanders I wait
for news of her death
hope she might dissolve
unnoticed except for the bit of her
I can’t spit out
biting the thick of my tongue
red split in the white coating
I choke every morning
my head says quit