If an entire world might exist
on a mote of pollen clinging to
the flower of a thistle,
then what about the blueberry seed
wedged into the chasm
of my broken tooth?
What catastrophe looms
for its atomic inhabitants
every time I worry it with
my lacerated tongue,
which is to say nothing for the event
in which the delightful berry
was pulped into seed
in the first place.
I am incapable of saving
my dying world,
but what about theirs?
Perhaps I should keep
the dentist at bay, and let the seed
germinate in the steamy hot house
of my mouth.
Might an entire universe sprout,
green and woody limbs and vines
erupting from my cheek,
wreathing my entire head,
until my body surrenders itself
as compost to the flowering
of a lush new multiverse?
What then might I think of
my efforts?
How gorgeous might their
worlds be?
Poem by Chris La Tray
Chris La Tray is a Métis writer and storyteller. His first book, One-Sentence Journal: Short Poems and Essays From the World At Large (2018, Riverfeet Press) won the 2018 Montana Book Award and a 2019 High Plains Book Award. His next book, Becoming Little Shell, will be published by Milkweed Editions in Spring 2022. Chris is an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians and lives near Missoula, Montana.
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Short Poems and Essays From the World At Large
by Chris La Tray