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