By Jess Brady
Art By Ash Clancy
Please teach me how to breathe,
Strip the blue away from my eyes and tell me exactly how to see,
Crawl inside of my veins and show the blood how to flow,
And don’t forget to tell me my name because I don’t know.
An uneven rhythm I could never unlearn,
A cold fever that only exists to burn,
It’s in the back of my throat and the corners of my sight,
Untamed consternation trained to bite.
Unrivaled inadequacy, unspeakable dread,
Bones to marrow and skin to shreds,
In syncopated hurt and unshackled disorder,
That knows no bounds yet crosses no border.
It stains my lips but has no taste,
All that’s left of fragmentation now has crumbled to waste,
To you and to me is what I could never give,
There’s a thousand languages but not one I could speak.
Hold me down and teach me how to live.
