My body is fertile ground

it helps to think of my body as a warm fertile place where lots of greenery thrive.

My body is fertile ground

and my heart lives in a garden

I am its gentle tender

I plant everything it eats,

and my heart likes sweet things

white potatoes that

melt like sugar in one's mouth,

slender mangoes like waning moons and

plump yellowing papayas,

the air inside me is a posy of

flower, fruit and morning rain.

I am held together by a network

of happy greenery wandering through me.

Each seed I swallow,

be it watermelon, purple granadilla,

or grape,

sprouts silky green vines

that coil tight around my ribcage,

wraps around my spine,

the flowers peaking out from under the thin

black skin on my back,

snakes up through my trachea,

peeks from the corners of my mouth

and out my nose and ears like happy green flags.