Something to begin
finely gritty on the teeth
looking closely to imagine eons of life
now crumbled into near-dust
shells and skeleton and fossil
bones of the earth, too
to put it tritely, a positive graveyard
littering and lingering
and softening seashores
lone insignificance & collective immensity
humble beginnings and humble endings
so long spent on the face of the earth
and now being shoveled,
handful by handful,
into my mouth

passing an island
on the highway
echoes
other structures
passed on other roads

Breaking and aching from far too much friction,
I'm stricken with toenails too long for these shoes

I'll grate my tongue into a million squidgy bits in a bid to shove these words back into my mouth / language and I, we suffer a fickle friendship / I'm clumsy I'm clingy and I can't keep my hands still / scaring everyone and everything off

That absurd thrum,
The rhythm of all things
                (beneath all life)
an ancient yearning bubbling up
              (as could-be memory)