after Midsommar (2019)

To flower mountainous
in a pulsing world,
I may never stop dancing again,
throat blooming a wail.

In a pulsing world,
grief: a swallowing
throat, a blooming wail,
brains blossoming on impact.

Grief, a swallowing
world growing through me.
Brains, blossoms, impact,
flickering gulp of pyres,

a world growing through me
again and again and again.
Flickering, gulping pyres
for everything I’ve loved―

again, again, again
you exhaust me,
a thing I’ve loved
just to be held.

You, exhaust, me.
Another thing to bear
just to feel held,
you have become

another thing to bear
in fire and smoke.
You have become
all my wild laughter.

In fire and smoke,
I flower mountainous.
O, my wild laughter,
I may never stop dancing again.

Taylor Brunson is a poet living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Her work has recently been featured in Mineral Lit Mag and Non.Plus Lit, and she serves as an assistant poetry editor for Four Way Review and assistant nonfiction editor for Nashville Review. Taylor can be found on Twitter, @taylor_thefox.