say yes

and my palms were floating

persimmons and orchids

offerings of candles. see

tilt of my legs

like a madonna hands spread

face turned down

body not, as expected,

alabaster not

asphodel, not horn, not ivory

not adamantine,

not magnolia, not marble,

neither tooth nor tusk, not rot

not snow

i looked and i did not melt.

everything held silent

then the shadows stirred,

they buzzed and crept up each flank

stretching toward my ribs.

i closed my eyes

slid underwater

and heard: unseen

some guitar, the fingers upon it

calling out nine or ten crystalline notes

that poured through the ceiling or the pipes

and each molecule of water until they came to me

in this body

where i carry each of my inadequate senses