The Body Speaking Upside Down
                                                                                                                                           after Sarah B. Boyle
 
1.
 
There is a whisper
on either side of the hand,
                                      turn wrist,
                                                 curl fingers as a wave
                                      to hear it.
 
Body’s voice tells truth
when you                      throw your skin
                                       through the air at a certain speed,
                                       when it hits water.
 
Spit out language, always indecipherable.
Roll in it.                                    Grind language into
  every crevice                  of the body,
                 every mat of hair.
 
 
2.
 
Learn to pull the body
                                    apart like language,
                                    stitch it back up,
also like language.
 
Punctuate with nail gun
and welding torch.
 
There is no tool too crude for this.
 
 
3.
 
The hand gone
behind rib
always comes out
coated in light.
Light gets under
fingernails,  sticks
between fingers
in pulled strings,
stains knuckle and cuticle.
It glitters
or it doesn’t.
 
It is a hand on fire
and you can
shove it down
your own throat.
 

​Margaret Bashaar’s first book of poetry, Stationed Near the Gateway, was released by Sundress Publications in early 2015. She has chapbooks from Grey Book Press, Blood Pudding Press, and Tilt Press and her poetry has appeared in many literary journals and anthologies, including New South, Caketrain, The Southeast Review, Copper Nickel, and Menacing Hedge, among others. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA, where she edits Hyacinth Girl Press and encourages art anarchy.