Articulate

(For Kerri)

She learned to speak
when she learned to construct
entire languages of worth
out of the skeletal vocabularies
that had always hung themselves upon her
and from the knowledge that wrecked paths
could mirror, speak, hear, and heal
the wreckage of the body.

She learned to think
only when convinced
her thoughts were no longer anchors
dragging her soul down to unlivable depths
but guides working tirelessly
to help navigate that space
where consciousness is born
from the reclamation
and the reiteration of one's humanness.

She learned to feel
without fear
when her body was finally freed
from psychotherapeutic anesthetics
and the last pain of manufactured guilt
was purged in words
allowed to float in the air

so that others might see stars
where once was only darkness.


*For Kerri, who continues to care and to question
the word "justice" as silenced on the lips of the broken
and written on the bodies of despair and of the hopeful.
You always serve to inspire. peace!