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Stump by Jaeyun Yoo

harbourcentre5

Stump

branches with inflamed apples
sag over the backyard fence

I leave a metal pail beside your shoes
one week later still

a folded ladder
buried in red rot

I sift through the tree for answers
aphids, fire ants, no fruit


I bite midway into a kiss
your slug of tongue

the parting scarcely saved
by a thin spit trail


this for three more years

until a bear discovers our unkempt garden
mauls our flea-bitten dog

the city forces us to chop down the tree
we pass the hatchet back and forth



- previously published in Grain (47.3, Spring 2020)


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