i had a body,
in another life.
i floated upwards in a cloud of morphine
as
he fell;
his hair danced downwards
like a dying leaf;
his skin flaked away,
crisp & white as snow;
his bones were hollowed,
knuckles thrown down like dice;
his arms were torn off
& became the branches of a great dark tree
a forest that shrouded him
in mist & the pain of the mystic
& above & below, there was void.
& then,
within the self-less void
there was a song.
the shattered fragments of bone began to shuffle
the ears to wiggle
the eyes to open
the lips to quiver
the whole body to dance itself
back into being -
watching from high above,
i begin to cry,
& the tears are rain,
memories,
all the people & plans & dreams i’ve been
[10 years old, perched on the edge of the world]
[the manic shamanic]
[stood on a ledge, i heard the cry of jungle birds]
[the love junkie]
[while they took my blood under fluorescent lights]
[the slug suckler]
all falling like rain,
spit & spat across the corrugated rooftops of sierra leone
flooding the barren earth
bursting the banks of a broken body
as the howl of the wind
inflates the lungs
& the cry of the bird
becomes the song of the heart
& the rhythm of rain
becomes the beating of veins
& hymn becomes him
& he becomes whole
& i have another body,
& another life.