They plucked you out before you could kill me.
I had to make a clean sweep. Forgive me,
conductor of my train to the future—
my artist daughter of long fingers
and kindness, my son with his kilowatt wit
and quiver of dreams. You were my gardener,
my stockpot, my pantry, your shelves
filled with my lifetime supply.
My arbor, predesigned, assigned at birth.
My divine egg timer, my clock that never
needed winding. You were my pinkish-gray,
almond-shaped, and my God, you were brave,
wore menstruation like a brightly flowered dress.
And the bloody labor of your fields.
Your timely hatchery, your drop-down
deliveries, your tubes swaying like anemones.
I, too, thought we could wither together
into gentle senescence. Forgive me
for evicting you in your dotage, not even
a hearing, your desk cleared in an hour,
everything you’d ever carried weighing
just over two ounces. Forgive me,
you who were my wheelhouse, my work
horse, my backfill, my unpaid laborer.
You, who toiled decades deep in the mine of me.