4. Voiced Flesh Safeguarded
Swear when you heard the word cell
first confess it had become plural
you saw amino signals unfurl
and waft across the vast steam
of primordial soup seas.
Swear you saw wide-armed Christ-s
on the water gesture,
we, your ancestors,
were here where you have arrived
at our memory.
Swear you saw mud awaken
and harvest community,
so help you God.
(That’s one thumb scrutinized forefinger
the mirror thought earlier watching her
release a strand of hair from an eyebrow
as if an artifact of the fossil appendage legions
she had seen in National Geographic.
Later, she withdrew her hand from his cheek,
fan-fingers slowly closing
as she opened her eyes
reminiscing his absence,
reminiscing
the solitude of a single hand,
a tongue that reads tea
in empty cups,
and how words proceed from skin. )
Swear!
Gyroscope Review 48
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