WHY COLONIZERS LOVE THE LAW OF CONSERVATION OF MATTER

Half a mile down the road from Annettesleeps my parents’ dream house white colonial100 acres with a creek I wander the big grassy yardred barn dismantled earthworks old cemeterybrush off a headstone grown over & littered with tractor partsElijah dead at 22 I vow to bring them back mushroom rings shine dissonant sparking greensparking mustard ladies lace paints there must be a godotherwise what is this web of rootsarbuscular mycorrhizae? Annette & I ride bikes down a dirt roadwhile I belt out Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” then we sit aimless by the creekkiss river stones alive “people lived here”Annette holds an arrowhead in her palm where are they we ask where where wherea porcini blinks I quote my science teacher matter is neither creatednor destroyed but only changes forms Annette rolls her eyessorry “unless you’re the one who died sorrychanged forms” a small girl materializes…