Mimosan by Jameela Dallis

MIMOSAN (In traditional medicine, Mimosa is used for heartache and grieving.) for Todd Neal

You, phantomed limb like silked mimosa flowers abscised and suddenly absent

(their fragrance a powdery haze like the indelible smear of not-yet-dry ink).

You, lampblack on watercolor paper swallow whole lobes of my being and I wonder what it must be like to touch the wound, the break—

and, then, does the tonic flow in? Me, abandoned web pocked with dust and clinging to the edge of a dream where

you are whole, rejoined there like plumb, dancing magenta blooms.