"Catharsis" by Miko

Take to this makeshift podium now and clear your throat,
clear all obstruction from your gut, until you regurgitate
the first sound your ever made.

In this moment verify all of your lies, admit
every detail of fact, spare none, make a case for yourself
though you see such words as hands pressed against your throat
forget the Fifth Amendment, sustain your objections,
forget the time the priest told your mother.

Confess your truths, preach your beliefs,
let them pass from your womb
painfully into the world, then cut the umbilical cord.

Trumpet every decibel of your noise,
from explosive to creaking
from the screeches that made others plug their ears
to the murmurs of the heart, heard before only with stethoscope

Articulate, dictate, elaborate, obfuscate
enunciate every word in your vocabulary
until your breath is tattered by words
until your throat becomes a desiccated mine shaft
and the gold is gone, and all other useable ore.

At that moment abandon it
bang planks of wood and rusty nails into the opening-
abandon your voice.

You will be left with your eyes and ears.
They should suffice.

Moreover

this love
needs them unencumbered.

Posted January 30, 2000.