If I But Had a Body to Speak From

I would not have to depend on this scurrilous individual

If I But Had a Body to Speak From 

I would not have to depend on this scurrilous individual self 
a word junkie who uses talking as a mental white cane 
search tapping keyboards 
for a path through space to inhabit via orbit 
talking yonky verd vestibular 
snorting an emulsified lexical page every single day 
with plain yogurt and maple syrup 

no spleen to dry clean 
no hippocampus to worry about re-writing
no oversize fleshly uvula vibrating like a tabla drum skin 
in the tired orange day of grounding 

if I but had a body to speak from 

I would probably have a bunch of other issues 
demands imperatives and imperfections  
that would stutter my thoughts 
like an air locked pen 
breathing into the night 
under the reeds of viscous peat bog pages 
with an amber red pompadour 
and a smile that would last 
a thousand years 
of tannin  

if I but had a body to speak from 


© Mike Ketch May 2025


I came across a workshopping prompt from Rachael Hill. “Choose a part of your body to speak from and spend a little while finding out what it’s got to say. “ This was the result.