The Blood & The Bones

some will tempt you with skin
with the little they’ve allowed themselves to learn
about pulling someone in
throw themselves at you
in the superficial ways they have amassed
from a bit of digging
a bit of observing from too close or a distance
and assumed you and others
held in high regard
they can’t go deep
this society who values artificial perfection
has taught us to be unwilling
that depth does not hold weight for many
they are there to do just enough
to merely scratch the surface
of what is comfortable
of the version of you on display for easy consumption

people live this way for years, for a lifetime maybe
on just enough borrowed interest

it goes both ways
so many are chosen for the wrong reasons

maybe that’s ok
maybe we all have a role to play
in befores and afters
in learning and life’s layers of transmutation
like trees and the rings they earn as they grow

but I never knew how to use a body
to get what I wanted
to just be a boat upon the surface
or a blunted trowel when I know well that I am a pickaxe

what I know is
prying myself apart
unveiling
not just intentions
an old soul
or even the facets of my own divinity
but a cage of bone pulled open
and a mirror there
there beyond the the growth rings
in the nucleus where we begin and end
where we protect the light
and even the requisite darkness
in the shoreline of understanding built around oceans of lessons
a reflection of more, of possibility
of what I look at you and see
so that you
you who thought shallow waters were deep enough
that you must be and expect less
that you didn’t deserve any better
may look there
and see
that man too

the blood
& the bones