If

If I could break this shotgun shell of a case

And pour my insides out

My organs pulsing with colors

Bright as the first sight-searing through the ether

Formless, but held in the space of existence

If I could take this wild and release it

Beyond this heart that is never not broken

Free it from the axis of these eyes

Salty from the experience of life

If I could take this breath

And have it move across the flesh

Delicate as air-instead of the rolling waves inside my lungs

Silent but for the sound from my vocal chords

If I could be more than a woman of this world

If I could break this case of myself

Expose all that I have felt

Every single thing my molecules have held

If I could release all of me into the vision of humanity

Raw and vulnerable

Naked and Undeniable

Would they turn in shame?

Would they avert their eyes, or hide their face

Because transparency is uncomfortable

A challenge that feels unreliable-

Because it moves the boundaries beyond what it perceived as safe?

If I took myself with twisting spine-

Crooked limbs akimbo from a dance ancient as Time

If I took myself sweaty and burning

Consumed from ashes and yearning

If I took myself to flight

Urging my clipped wings to break from their binding

And I leapt from the edge

Would you find the courage to reach inside- and delicately grasp the reigns

Fingers wrapped in strength

That has been coiled in Silence....

Would you leap, if you could not see the ground?

Would you revel in the unknown,

With the secrets to be found?