Strangler Fig

The light years of their birth & death. The immeasurable

Expansion & collapse of eras, like a husband’s stretched

Snort of breath at his wife’s nippy questions. A snail’s oozy

Diminutive progress in slow motion or a gradual weave on

Time’s parasitic loom, threads inflating like a clown’s trick

Balloon, the poodle twisting into place. Their millennial

Embrace, as finally green fingers encircle & clasp, caught

In mid-strangulation, a psychotic Daphne transformed into

An aerial-killer or Bluebeard wrapping his cloak around

His bride’s bare shoulders. A Tin Soldier of sub-tropical

Rainforest, the two hearts meld into one, then inexorably

Decay sets in. The long marriage never lasts, as drizzle

& borers carve out memory’s core. Until, an open-air,

Walk-in cathedral is all that remains of cellular union.