To Keep

Give me the quietness

But don’t show me the cost.

I see the braces,

Good graces

And faces we lost

Knowing is a virtue, yes

But here I’d rather not.

I find the traces,

And laces

And places in cloth

In a worldly museum fashion,

I’ll curate every bone of your form;

Every hard, indispensable ration you've got

Beneath muscle and skin and blood pawns.

Make it life-affirming

Pace-discerning

Need you murmuring my name,

Body-learning

Panting, yearning

We’ll craft a shelter out of the rain.

We are made of many things

And our fabrics rot,

But still I’m racing

Taking, tasting

And my blood clots.

You clot it better than any,

And explain why it needs to be done.

You are peace, you are healing

And you've got me down kneeling

All I hear, all I’m feeling, every string that I strum.

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