i was a fading memory
until she grafted
a hint of her beauty
to my cardiac sac
the infusion spread
across my system
until i became
nothing but hers
becoming something more
than i ever dreamt

the same way
farmer’s in mexico
plant orange trees
then graft a branch
from a line tree
carefully pruning
the old growth
until the tree
can only produce
a verdancy of limes

i can recall tiny
snippets of the feral
beast i was before
yet it feels like
an entire different
shadowy creature
undefined by beauty
a seething thing
once filled with sharp
thorns of bitter angst