Flesh. Bone. Ash.

My mother looks at me

She says that I have gotten skinny

That I am flesh and bone

I am flesh and bone

With a heart shaped like a heart and hands that never stop shaking

I love too much, she says

And one day I’ll give too much of myself away with it.

I peel a tangelo with my hands

Stripping back the skin like it’s a waning moon

And I am the sun

My fingers dry everything and become sticky

Picking up the ash falling from my eyes

Today, they are a burning forest

A green burnt and licked with flames

They consume everything.

Now this is the part where I strip backwards.

I undo my lungs

Unbutton my spine

Unlace these fingertips

I pull myself apart

Scattering the pieces of me in all the places that mattered

Hoping that it will give me meaning

Sometimes, you’ve just got to give yourself to the things you believe in.