• Vol. 10
  • Chapter 06

Preservation

Desiring beauty, I pressed them all flat
between the pages of a heavy book

      Between the pages of a heavy book,
      dying, their essence seeped out slowly

Their essence seeped out, slowly drying
in a monument to childhood's glimmer

      (Erect a monument to childhood's glimmer
      as the sun dies soft behind the clouds)

Behind the clouds there is soft pastel light
or so the ancient tales have promised me

      I've promised tales myself, to ancient ones
      caught in shining nets of milkweed silk

In shining nets of milkweed silk I caught them.
Desiring beauty, I pressed them all flat.

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