A week after fumigation
the Jade plant out front
dropped its leaves,
small fleshy pads littered
the courtyard and
I pushbroomed them into piles,
the cement stained and slippery
with their juice.
Within a month
the bark puckered and pulled away
from the inside meat
as if distancing itself
from itself,
drawing back from life
little by little,
until drained and hollowed,
it waited
for my slight tug
to uproot its empty body.
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