after Lucille Clifton I almost lose it, in the gym with all the nude bodies that make me love my own despite its lumpiness—your ring. A silver twining around my finger, a silver lining on my worst days. Twisted like DNA, my past & future. How I know you’re sutured to both. You have a new ring now, diamond. Still we meet in this gym and strip down to our skin, our changing bodies. When we were kids we’d peel bark from branches until we found the green center. Now I simply know