Carnelian, which Suggests the Flesh

The man who studied the lawbuilt the city into a gardenon the old trail to a new country,spreading magnolia seedsfrom the seams of his pocketsbecause his wife loved them.

He would not walk in this garden:it was a project with a visionof two hundred years, as the treesgrew slowly in the red dirtfrom the flat, red seeds

that he took from the fruitof the tree. Like her, he knewhow summer fills with heatand then the tree's scent, its wood,its blooms, the leaves evergreen

and copper in respiration.When the city was gone,there was the garden. Magnolias anchor themselveswith their limbs to form pyramidsagainst the storms, and we go in.