**SURVIVANCE (MENTHA)
BY ERIN KOEHLER
State University of New York – Geneseo, ’15
2015 Adroit Prize for Poetry: Editors List
To make love with blue jays: shrink & hitch
to stinkbug wings. Scrape apart pinecone—: fold
scales as sunscreen. We bite down on lemon seeds : : We plant
lemon seeds in our eardrums. Bed in alyssum
& hammer stakes to break concrete: lack root patience : : drink
earth through our feet. Fearing terracotta,
all wire & plywood, we kissed in the chicken coop; we kissed by the salt
lick. Honey stiff, I dagger down:— crouch & pull
feathers from your hair. I fight to go to seed; steal
ice cubes for my tongue & I am rum-fine: let the water drip
down jaw edges as they swell me—I break
off my ears & sell them to street vendors as spare parts.