If someone tells you a five is a one
Don’t believe them. Five is five
And one is nothing at all.
If someone with eyes like bleeding beets asks you
To spill your secrets, keep your trap shut.
Keep it shut and silent as a mushroom.
If the mirror is a ton of climbing vines
Climb up them – careful not to split a single leaf.
The moon is not your aunt who said she cared
Then went out shattering pumpkins in
The worst night of your year.
It’s important to keep in mind
Your year is not the spider’s year,
Nor the dog’s, but the snake’s itself, her own.
Soon, it’s going to coil back around,
Grinning to itself, hissing a new language.
–Art by Barbara Florczyk