from "A Hole of Bones & Thread"
       

Fill the body
with water, with river.
Move closer. Not
the body as mystery—as cage
of breath, wrapped
in vinyl & rubber bands.
Not the imagined body. Open
the lips, fill the mouth.
Move closer. The nostrils, burning
passage behind the throat. Fill them
with river. The tissued valve
of epiglottis; tendrilled bronchial
branches, hungrily open.
Flood them. Overwhelm,
till capillaries collapse like straws,
then release, gaping as tunnels
channeling rainwater beneath the city.
Move closer. Enter the larynx,
where the voice begins. Flood it.
Muffle the voice, the vibration
of sound, the rumble before words.
Muffle it with river, with silt.
Where there is no voice
the body says drown.
This is where the shock
sets in. This is where the panic
begns. Fill the voice with river
& wait. It won't take much.
Then it will take everything.

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Copyright © 2017 Chuck Carlise All rights reserved
from In One Version of the Story
New Issues Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission