Treehouse

from Rachel Natale, author of Poetic Material:

1. Wrap it neatly in smooth brown paper and secure it with twine—the sandalwood scent will linger in your nose. Carry these bundles with you wherever you go, handing them out when they become too light in your backpack and you fear losing touch with the ground.
2. Gather it up in buckets from the ocean, deep blinking blue in the afternoon. If you cannot carry the weight of it inside, the water will evaporate and leave piles of coarse salt crystals behind.
3. Plant it in rich soil, almost black, and watch bright blooms appear. Pluck a bouquet and place it on the windowsill. When the flowers begin to wilt, hang them upside down to dry. Each time you look at them, you will see the lingering beauty of things that inevitably end.
4. Scribble it down wherever you can, then slip it between the pages of books, crumple it up in your pockets, and hide it at the back of your dresser drawers. In the middle of winter, you will rediscover it while rustling through your favorite poems late at night, digging for a pen on the bus, or searching for a missing wool sock. Surprised, you will smile.
5. Pluck it from the sky, long strands of golden light that fall from the sun and rest on your eyelashes. Bury it deep in your organs, your skin, your bones, pouring molten joy into the hollow curves at the center of you. When you excavate your insides, you will find empty spaces filled in with heat.