Tumbling Towards Truth

They attack, teeth in bone, cracking and grating along my spine. 

I can feel the careful flesh of my heart tearing, opening, 

 bleeding bright red truths into this world once cradled blue.

I feel my guts exposed, 

my brain disconnected

 as those magnificently small beats of wing 

flutter and flap and vie for an escape.

My mouth opens, 

the words pour onto the sidewalk in front of you. 

I cover my lips, 

the emotions seep through my fingers 

and onto your palms waiting patiently close to my chest.

You catch, 

you hold, 

you embrace 

these truths with me.

You fill my outstretched hands with tumbling truths of your own.

Some sounds can’t be held 

and slink into the space between the earth and concrete, 

between the always was and recently has been. 

Back into the core
they nourish the next radicle of seed, 

the next raging of shark, 

the next word out of your mouth 

straight from your cracking and grating backbone, 

fins and teeth everywhere.