this animal is my self it demands care, quietness, aliveness infused as it is with primordial light and dread sometimes I am only ears and eyes and fingers and legs and *** and spine, a stomach, a liver and a heart, sweat, tension and craving, a felt unity vital stories to be told in the forgotten language of hope and despair, longing and refusal there is earth in my hands, air in my eyes, fire in my stomach, water in my skin untranslatable whispers about you, the other-me I am a thirsty boundary for the river of life to dream sighs symbols rythms harmonies and virtues