A Closed Beating Silence. {poetry}
My brother likes to say
that your sternum is the only thing
holding your chest together,
that if your sternum breaks
right down the middle
in a vertical line,
the tension of your ribs
will tear your chest apart.
I don’t know how true that is,
or the statistical probability of a perfect
clean break down your sternum,
what exactly must occur
to break such closed beating silence.
There are 24 ribs
in the human chest
and the sternum anchors twenty.
.05% of people have an extra one;
a mirage of security, one
more to keep you closed and clean.
In dreams my chest
is opened from the inside.
Not gently, with a key, but
torn apart instead
by internal pressure
and emptiness outside.
The universe tends towards balance,
my brother said.
Breath leaves with the wind
a scream–no, a laugh
and I am lying still on
the itchy grass–
love expands me
and suddenly I know
I am not separate
from the universe:
I, too, tend towards balance.