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Scales & Teeth
Poetry Month 4th
break it down to the cellular level
everything has scales
everything has teeth
my housemate all flesh and muscle
peels the sunburnt skin off his left arm
with a smile
he has biked hundreds of miles during The Virus
as he would have before
as he will after
you have to really like yourself to be okay alone
a girl I knew in childhood sends me updates
from Chicago
of what The Virus feels like
chest heavy
scream at the back of her throat
impossible to breathe impossible to sleep
and I think
I have had this before
from the edges of New Mexico a friend
wraps his face in a grease stained bandanna
and drives across the desert
wind whipping sand across ruddy cheeks
as he would have before
as he will after
break it down to the cellular level
evolution demands
change
and tradition demands
the…
