bruised rib and a sliced wrist,
cactus fruit sticker in the roof of my mouth
and a dent in my face.
stuck

meat drying in the house,
smoked salmon potlatched,
master carver on our floor working,
family and grandmothers
together in the darkest.
blessed.

flesh scraped from skin,
brains pressed soaked in
twisting dried
smoking hide.
warmth.

babylonian barbs stuck deep in my skin and brain
pull back as i extricate from the bush i've allowed
to grow around this body and ego
for twenty years
bloody, raw and aching
i keep cutting
i keep cutting.
out.

voices from the house
letters from the city
you can fuck off
if you don't like how i smell.
it's reinforcement, that
untying there,
merging here.

lonely path, this
we find eachother in the river
see and celebrate
is habit the shore?
these who gasp and die
are surely not ourselves
our sisters and brothers
entrapped in the dark flower.
at a point hope is lost,
they submit
don't submit.

slippery we,
sticky too
your dead eyes are beyond my understanding
mystery shifting.
i hear you
but i can't see you
where is your innermost?
cut
out.