if you split your tongue down the middle

& tied the halves together 

if you sliced the floral tattoo from your thigh

& dried it on the kitchen counter

if if if you were anyone

other than who you are right now

would you have shoulder-warm seaspray

or an aversion for yellow?

you don’t know when you stopped singing but 

you don’t remember what your voice sounds like

when you’re joyful

when you left god you let your vocal cords

corrode in your throat

what does it say about you

that all the women you know 

have violently transformed? 

if you ripped the nervous system

from the base of your neck

it would come gently

alive and thriving in your hands 

as it creates its own exoskeleton

if you abandoned your firm spine behind you

and scrapped the familiar gothic routine

if you discovered the mouth of the world

the place where it all began

you would still be here