/THred/

noun/verb 

1. tear the skin cloaking / my sternum and you’ll find the chipped / edges of my ribcage stitched /

together  by my grandmother’s hand / backstitches between backbones, running / stitches across ribs. she /  even embroidered my/name in a corner so it’ll never be / misplaced. 

2. last week, i took out my twelfth rib, yeah, the one on the left. those are the new sutures. it’s

messy work, sure, but—can you blame me? my grandma never taught me surgical stitches. but i’m alright,  some baggy clothes and a shot of tea every saturday does the trick. mostly. and you know what? god  lied. i can still feel the loss I’m suffering. but there’s a holy glow coming from where the rib used to be.  it’s weird, isn’t it? it fills the hollow like chrism. finally, adam. 

3. sown natural/still natural, woman-made/self-made. my laolao, i hope, doesn’t care. I still thread

the needle, and laolao still pulls the thread.