driving home from physical therapy
a vulture scouts for roadkill by the traffic circle
even now the cycle continues breaking down the dead
to uptake remains incorporate those hard to synthesize
amino acids and bioavailable minerals
permeable membranes and sinew
bones that will bleach in the sun eventually
once the rest has been reused
we will fertilize new forests
that grow to live in warmth, in flood,
in too much nitrogen and phosphorus for us
in our excesses and wreckage
in refracted light from empty buildings
glittering in glass sun wastewater
pfas and microplastics
unfamiliar flora holding hands in the apocalypse
growing together into
queerplatonic symbioses
like lichen on the
walls of our first apartment
Alexandra Weiss is a graduate student and plant enthusiast in Indiana. Sasha edits for Another Chicago Magazine and has written a chapbook, autumn is when the ghosts come out (Blanket Sea Press, 2022). WEB
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