words begin as breath

 break your arms around your love
            home is a burning building
     you sang about it in your sleep
      i cut my hair more times than i
  remember i should have grown it
past my knees it would have been
         more symbolic like tree rings
     every curl and kink would have
   been the teeth these words lack
chewing through faded nail polish
this resistance
silence’s friction
a metaphor 
for breathing

daughters of the soho riots