Nails chipped and chapping lips
hold tight my jaw tonight.
See how marrow maps this wreck
where black veins branch
their varicose courses, their rivered curses.
See how bruise-splintered knee caps cape a million wounds,
all wound tight upon this skein, this skin, this spinning wheel of muscling motion.
And naught can avail my tailbone, trail-worn and tired,
against the saddlesore kiss of this,
another day gone by.