Sonya Taaffe

The Green Man Answers the Classifieds

for Mat Joiner

He writes eyes brown, hair green,
in his spare time enjoys flippancy and photosynthesis,
despairs of words as dry as summer-fissured cork,
the droughty gossip of late, locust-shelled leaves,
wishes he could twine his fingers through the pages
until pulp and printer's ink remember
the slow sap-rise, the stretch and groin of branches
tattooed with lichen, bird-riddled, the waking tree
untangling himself from the morning paper
to meet him mouth to mouth, yearning toward the sun.

Poems by Sonya Taaffe have won the Rhysling Award, been shortlisted for the Dwarf Stars Award, and been reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, The Alchemy of Stars: Rhysling Award Winners Showcase, The Best of Not One of Us, and Trochu divné kusy 3.