The Woman Who Dreams

~can such a world be?~

‘Brave Seeds Wait’ farida haque

My heart

a shivery leaf

which caterpillars ate

halfmooned

around the edges

the caterpillars

they grew fat

slept marinated

in philters and ichors

then

burst upon the world.

A diademed sun cried,

“You mortals

of necrophagous ways,

behold the beauty

I foment whilst

you scratch at

a dream of immortality

a corpse

abandoned by

conscience and virtue!”

But who listens?

My heart

Torn into butterflies,

flutters around forests

like confetti.

Like confetti

the colors of which

I cannot count,

it flitters.

If at all death can be defied,

here’s the way,