The parachute, not as a landing device

In a slippery desk drawer

lined with avocado fat

fastened by a diary lock

is an unopened parachute.

A soldier couldn’t ask for a sandwich

or leave anything but a tooth under his pillow

so he escaped.

Sometimes cacti confuse hunger with thirst.

This is a side effect of photosynthesizing.

The soldier mastered the art of bulb-tuning

and found some light makes microscopic animals

seem artificial.

My sister plants perennials back home,

but I’m never there for her

to have something to show for it.

A soldier comes home

with a cumulus on his back

but no one has missed him.

The parachute gets us nowhere

but nowhere is somehow safe.                                                           printable