to have removed the teeth

to fill, even more, the mouth with darkness

to cut the tongue out the better

to cry out the silence

to seal the eyes

to see the night

and drilled through the ears 

to still the mind

yet this emptied shell still breaks  

the heart,

a beggar’s bowl

asking to be upturned of all

that is not you, that other life

nippled, tart 

and slick with pleasure

thus and thus giving of itself

to this one

its sounds bait that silence 

to stir leap savage and 

retire.

we even when we are not 

speak thus

are devoured    

these words

flailing a way