Introduction: [in-truh-duhk-shuhn]

I ask you to take a piece of me
and hold it up to the light
like a prism

or press your nose against the glass.

I say hold a moth to my eyelashes
and watch it flutter with my breath,

or barge inside this dark room
and grope for my hand.

I want you to swim
across the channel of my cheekbones
creating a rosy blush stroke by stroke.

But all you want to do
is place me in a petrie dish
and examine the patterns of my voice.

You begin stabbing me with pliers
to find out if I really bleed.