Laura Gee

Emblem

"It is not words only that are emblematic; it is things which are emblematic. Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact."

 — Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature

I attend to where lines begin

and end. I find they elude

perception.

They shimmer like asphalt

on an August horizon.

My breath departs,

meeting the world

before returning to my bronchioles

and to my open heart.

My intestine is an Eden

for little Adams and Eves,

while my cells are true exemplars

of hospitality, housing mitochondria

on long-term lease.

My mind cannot be contained

in gray matter. Its spores spread

beyond my flesh.

Here: a spore

in my journal;

others in a list

and a note to a friend;

still more

in plans for the garden drawn up

and carried out:

bee plant seducing bees,

Narcissus preening in spring,

peaches hung in the orchard,

and tomatoes, blood red and flecked

with gold.

Laura Gee is a writer living in Salt Lake City, Utah.