Vertical inventory: autonomy in praxis: the sunflower

can reach the height of a small tree on its own. It has been

many years since I beheld a tree without binding. I would ask it

how it depends upon itself. Not even the self

is singular, being at least the union of two cells that cannot even

depend upon each other to create a single being. We must forever

be parting from ourselves in order to create an other. Consider

the number 8, two cells arrested in the moment before splitting. Against

the completion of their own mitosis. The chromosomes

racing to either end. It is a miracle, or only the magnetic

pull that creates a fully realized thing. Myself, the tree, the sunflower,

the bitter ache of this process of being.                     Last night, I slept

fitfully in death’s bed while the people above coupled and fought. The next day,

I put on my sweater and slowly pulled on my boots, and I lived.