Adam Gianforcaro: What Now?

Photo: Joanna C. Valente

Months After the Chainsaw the Tree Speaks Back

Resist, it says, but means resuscitate. 
Bugs feed on slime flux,
bubbling like pasta water, like sun-
burnt blisters. And what now? 
Bleach? Vinegar? 
When I later pour the gasoline, 
I think of the boy from town, 
the plot of land still for sale.
All this to say 
there are certain things I miss about you.
I pick a mushroom and place it 
to my ear like a telephone.
It speaks to me in translation,
in fragments from a famous elegy.
All this to say we are culpable.

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Adam Gianforcaro is a writer living in Wilmington, Delaware. His poems, stories, and essays can be found or are forthcoming in Hobart, Poet Lore, Third Coast, RHINO Poetry, Maudlin House, and elsewhere. He tweets intermittently under the handle @xadamg.