Go ahead and crack my ribs apart at the sternum. Then reach beneath my bleached bones to dip your fingers in my crimson veins. I laugh with insecurities and wonder if you feel that we are of the same blood.

I bite my trembling lips and my palms are like dragonfly wings fluttering around my throat to keep breathing. I search your eyes trying to calm my insecurities that are creeping down my spine. Don’t you know me?

Somewhere buried behind my lungs the stars are smoldering. Place your hands on my chest and feel the heat, each individual fire warming your palms until the milky way starts melting through my pores. You were the man who seemed so large that I believed you could wrestle a comet by its tail from the night sky. Will you be that man now?

My spine is like an aging willow that is falling to meet the aquatic embrace. Now my flesh is sea glass and you can see vines that have encased my heart. I trust that you will layer by layer unravel the seaweed and find the message in my torso-bottle. You placed it there when I was born. Do you remember?

I trust you to know that I am wounded but I am healing.

Please hold my ribs together with a whisper.

I trust you to know I know I am scared to death.

Please still my fear with a kiss.

I trust you not to break me like you did before…..

(father)

The word and rules for this week’s challenge