Body is Bone-Cage

When I am released from this bone-cage:

When neurons collapse

Organs fail:

Skin, dust, dissipation of atoms of “me”.

When my ribs are no longer trapped across my chest, holding everything in

like the spines of sailing ships.

Guts spill out, liver & bile & blood

Intestines let loose my last meal (quinoa salad & beans).

When my brain ceases rattling in its cage

Ceases shaking, stills.

Quiet across the expanse, conscious of time &

infinite spaces (your mind and you/my mind, mine, each a universe).

When, worn with travail, breath spills from lungs

broken feet

br-

br-

capillaries constrict

no oxygen flows-

(I, I, I)…

…

…