wire.

When I was younger I once said to a newer friend who was seated sidelong on the pavement: the body is connected at the joints, through ringed sockets and upon stringy wire,

so that when I splay my arms for your appraisal I become misshapen, a leaden reverb traveling upward from the tender earth as I rise.

And whether from the posture or the pulpy sound of the crack of bone I cannot find the totality of my strength to stand, I think of the heat of the pavement, the unfettering of those wires no longer taut as I begin to fall.