have you ever sat into your self?
felt deltoids retract into spine,
felt worry melt into fine
strands of heat, shivering up
the neck's incline
and helmeting your face?
have you ever held your space?
the circle that's inscribed
on the meters that surround
your body? have you ever reached
into that sphere
and recovered distance
jotted down time
analyzed velocity
and finned through air?
ever thought of yourself as a shark
or a knife, or a brush
ever conceptualized your nerves as thousands
of sensors, coiled in brine,
ever considered you're like a tree
perhaps a pine
blowing in perennial breezes
prevailing winds of location?
have you ever reached out to another in anger
and found only reciprocity
only likeness, like a mirror but warmer
like mercury but steady
ever felt so alive with another that it felt like
your brain might burst from a chthonic slumber
from a rotten iceberg
into lightning-laced air?
because I have
and I've never recovered