every word

is my favorite word

like prayer children 

unlike those unsought flesh /

bone ones

 

when they come 

out from others’ works

rarities / a vision

but from my hands, vaulting 

they gash and tear 

 

i want this chant tattooed 

on me but i don’t

celebrate i don’t honor the days

nor what they gift

 

loving art, life

that fabled color

a gamble, knowing 

full well my phalanges

will never handle 

the piano’s dare

 

i’ve conversed

with the fictional

with the dead

i have gone

soaked my oats

i’ve come back

with other people’s secrets

yet never knew them

 

i am more

theseus’ ship

than person

sui generis

i watch others be themselves,

wring my bloody 

 

palms in and out

of taunting windows

i creep-stare at lovers

open-touched, intimacy

performed rubato

 

a vision

and i’m the mall goth

baffled oats,

patchwork ship

my life, my life, right in front

of my very other eyes