I’ve got a long stare, a powdery touch

And enough buckles around my chest

To keep it all in

I’ve got a twitch in my right eye,

A dry cough and something crawling

Under my skin that I can’t name
Yesterday the sky looked green to me

My elbows itched as the rain clouds

Rolled over;

A stampede, then nothing for a long time
Yesterday my phone rang twice

And it sounded like sirens from a cloudy dream

This morning my phone rang once

And it sounded like my mother’s voice

Calling me to dinner
I’ve got sweaty palms and a crooked step

Last week I fell from the mulberry tree

behind my mother’s house

Last night I woke from sleep,

Saw an angry finger digging into my stomach

And felt five years old again
I once threw myself at a passing train

But remembered I could float

Before my body touched hot steel

Behind my eyelids I saw the shape of

My body, crumble

Like burnt toast

And I watched pieces of myself gather in groups

Like gulls flying home
Last month I thought I was a wooden gate

Left to dry and turn gray

And I held myself like that for a long time

Solid and heavy

Solid and heavy
I’ve got limbs that I’ve named;

Claim a thing to own it

I’ve got limbs that I’ve lost and

I’ve named them all “Yesterday”

Last night my mother called my name

And her name rang out

I’m young, I said, and I’m tired today
I’ve got a pain in the centre

Of my spine and it sounds like a screeching bus

When i run

It’s the sound of placing your hurts in

Alphabetical order,

Tieing them with beautiful bows

And expecting the healing to begin 
Sometimes it sounds like the mazes

Built wider and more complex

To make the centre of it all

Impossible to get to
Sometimes it sounds like

Protecting your traumas

Because they’re the longest,

Most loyal relationship you’ve ever had.
I’ve got dry eyes and a heavy gut

And they carry me home and

Carry me home.