99poems/cornsilk

Corn silk
is good for flexible
bones. I like
to slide it through
my fingertips,
to rub it across
my lips
and cheeks.
It has the erotic
properties I like
in what I eat,
moist and pliant.
This is why,
I’m sure,
it makes bones
the same –
a doctrine
of signatures
of sorts,
wherein a
plant looks like
what it cures.
Lungwort.
Liverwort.
And more.

I used to call
him mugwort,
meaning someone
who lies about,
maybe because it sounds
like slug,
I never really knew.
Such things are
never knowable.
Except through
the touch
of corn silk
on your face.

5/24/99