Photosynthesis

I photosynthesise you through
heart, mind, skin
take you in like light then 
let you divide, multiply, infuse 
your nutrients into my component parts until
you bubble in my cells
churn through my channels of bone
reinforce sinew
endow my muscles with force to move.

I can manufacture oxygen from you -
expel you invisibly from my airspace -
you leach from my head like mustard gas, 
tart and yellow colour that has boiled too much.
I concentrate.  Breathe.  Try and make you
pale to opaque.

Yet all the while, the steam of you
tickles my memory, maddeningly,
and despite all my precautions
you materialise, appearing accidentally 
on my birthday
like a demented genie.

Even my stereo couldn't suffocate you
with a landslide of sound
and I have found no oxygen mask 
that can filter your power.  Your scent
spreads across the years like ammonia, 
evokes bright images, bright tears, 
until I cough and retch from the
catching of you in my throat.

I need a miner's lamp and a yellowbird
everytime I see a herringbone coat.

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