she gives flowers
to them that smell bad

and fans herself
like shes swarmed by bugs

she taught me how
to use a sword

before the duel
she dips it in poison

she fights in the desert,
but i caught her lookin at me
in a church




"memory is an exquisite snowman, saying
i am made of the same stuff as the earth that bore me
a snowman is like a spermacetti candle
shedding tears of wax as it dies"