Last Leaf

What does the old woman say as you pass?
Clearing, and sweeping across the floor
The voice repeats

Freckles like watercolor
Dripped from head to, head to toe
Wooden floor, hands and knees
I'll paint each square just so you don't forget me

Coyote nipping, police scanner calls
Pumpkin-colored farm light

Furnace monster; her breast cancer
Scratching at my back, all my dreams
This is just memories
Still polluting, still polluting
Indefinite boundary
My heart is a swamp
My heart is a swamp

You pinned down my soul
Bondage straps across my chest