talismans raze i saw it sitting on the top rail of the fence that borders her backyard, next to the middle picket. i thought it was a white butterfly. pieris rapae. but it isn't anything that's alive. it's plastic. it looks like half a set of novelty vampire dentures with most of the teeth knocked out. or a shrunken sphenoid bone. human hands or the mouth of some small animal put it there. an offering, or a talisman to return to when we're all better versions of ourselves. now it's buried beneath the same white web that's made a mess of everything today. i want to believe this is winter's way of saying goodbye when it should already be gone. whatever cord coils through this cold cotton, let me rip it out and wrap it around my waist so i can feel its heat hit me right below the ribs. because i'm ready. 220418 what's it to you? who go blather from