by Diandra Williams
the bristled faces
of sunflowers droop
in the neighbor’s yard
& from your upstairs apartment
we break the stalk
of our engagement
another season
of raising the sun
to its full span
another season
of roots buckling
w/ each tackle
the birds bag
their first home game
of the season
& from your window i watch
their shoulders angle from
love’s perpetual scrimmage
laid back
like the neighbor’s
sunflower carcass
picked clean of its
teeth innumerable
head bent
in the summer grass
awaiting the cool fade
of the season’s first frost