by Molly Fuller
THIS RESEMBLES A FUNERAL RITUAL
SCARCITY OF TREES open floor plan
room for all (especially at holidays)
toxicity of paint dependent on individual
exposure deeper and lower
farther from windows (which can shatter)
doors (which can fly open) exterior walls
(which can cave in) better your odds
extraction works through ashes
trickling water hardwood fire
soda is purified leaves white crystals
unthinkable levels (an intimacy of cutting)
flesh from bone survivable exchanges
extract DNA from marrow
(keepsake locket) act of generosity
burned seaweed coastal plants
barilla (or salicornia) dried kelp
blisters flat feet
the body (in manageable pieces)
fed to the sky to the birds
MOLLY FULLER is the author of the full-length collections For Girls Forged by Lightning: Prose & Other Poems (All Nations Press) and Always a Body (Cornerstone Press, forthcoming); two chapbooks Tender the Body (Spare Change Press) and The Neighborhood Psycho Dreams of Love (Cutty Wren Press). She recently won the Gris-Gris Summer 2020 Poetry Contest. Her work has appeared in Nothing to Declare: A Guide to the Flash Sequence, New Poetry from the Midwest, 100 Word Story, Kestrel, and Pedestal Magazine. She is the recipient of a 2020 Artist Residency from both Vermont Studio Center and Wassaic Project. You can find her on Instagram and twitter @mollyfulleryeah.