BLACK SEED

By Leaf Pettit

Deep in me is a secret

den, hidden in the pit

of my being, warm and damp

and rich with the funk of fungi.

Here, I shelter her, my soul-

seed, my shadow-self,

my motherless child, cradled

in the womb-black,

mole-black, liquorice-wrapped dark.

Foetal curled in sombre softness

she rests among carbonised remains

of ancestral pain, absorbing loam-

filtered tears. Nourished

by the black gold of decay

as she slumbers; tending

her subtle resurgence.

Deep in umbra I hold her.

For all the time it takes, I hold her.

#darkpoetsclub