Trust Tonji

If I should ever fall in love

let it be with the scent
of lemon grass tea

emphasis on scent:
that thing you can't grab

but hugs the joy out
of your nostrils' life, in love but

not with the little regrets
of my grandmother

when I teased her about
how pretty the name of

her ex looks tattooed on her chest
unlike her, I want to fall in love

with the scars on my breath
as a sign that, once, I've been

human, once I hugged fire
and did not burn, once I lost

my front teeth so I couldn't
pronounce the letter 'f' even

if I had to curse someone so
badly, I just swallowed my voice

and let it go down into the darkest
depth of the dungeon

in my oesophagus once I did not die
—at once—like wildfire

instead, I broke my death
into b i t s of water

as I stared at the face of an angel
with a thousand braids