Broken Body
Go and repair those Broken limbs That torn face And cracked smile
You are lying there In the chalk outline of that day Replaying a hazy memory On the backs of your eyelids
Unclear whether your hands And feet and legs And lips are yours Whether you, are yours
Stand and mend your Ruptured appendix Sew the slit in your chest Sending blood into your stomach
Where things have gone to die Where a lost chick Has her fragile talons stuck in your flesh And is beating against your ribs to escape
She is like you once were— With broken limbs A torn face And cracked smile, trying to flee
Escape within an inch of her life Clutching her chest as if At any moment her bones would fissure And the rushing river of her would come spilling out
Pluck her from my chest And sew up her mangled wings Straighten her crumpled legs Reattach her beak and set her free
Pull yourself from the trench Wipe blood and earth from your skin Wash yourself anew in the water of your mothers Rebuild your broken body
© Ama Akoto (2018)