rabbit twenty-three

a line between careless and pensive,

hold that. unstacked and unshelved,

I opened the cookbook on his desk

to a page he has bookmarked

with a ball of my red hair. long strands

spiral out over soufflé, scrawled

in the marginalia NYE 2022. a sweet

force overcomes. deeply reflective,

memory— an attempt to enslave time,

dreaming of power and domination,

I disrobe from the dying year dropping

my fringed velvet shawl to the floor.

where does it go? to a place beyond

the clock. chimes of the long now

bubble over. water tiger

demarcation, watermark, water stain, 

still able to pronounce

letters clearly with my mouth, “open the door.”

yellow roses and paperwhites 

fragrant starcrossed spikes

of the coming year of the rabbit ignite

in our world’s last chance to regain the feminine.

the atmospheric river expressing genuine

pineapple flows overhead. redwood trees

catch the wind and pacific treefrogs kreck-eck

ribbits again. steady in the coming aura

of discovery and compassion, twenty-three weaves.