hands Clasped,
claws vices fingers
Twisted, gnarled like branches of a tree
star-shaped clusters of bones Bound with string and wrapped
in dry rustling layered
cigarette paper,
clutching and bowing like Thistles, like birds

Eyes rolling, Eyes creaking, Eyes coated in dust
dripping, wax white, warped as glass
Boiled glass
the burnt lens of a telescope, see stars
crushed, sliding between your teeth
Eyes twisting eyes straining
they ache in their sockets, they crumble like dust and they sting
like Wire.

My tongue—they gave me six words to say
and they took it away
left it to shrivel and blacken and die, Rough
like sandpaper
Black like tar, like smoke, heavyglued shut,
curled like a slug at the base of my throat

the Base of the spine,
i climb, i climb
each vertebrae is a Smooth polished rung
shot with blue sparks like lightning, no
light on the water
Sparks
chasing each other down my back
like a vine
like a galaxy