When lips lend
little shape to word

observe what ears
could not have heard:

the poetry
of soulful eyes

how sweat and trembling
vocalize

soliloquies
deep sighs recite

thick histories
thin limbs will write

tense questions
nervous fingers pose

the hard-won truths
some wrinkle shows

why birdsong
shakes this cage of bone

if shoulders pout
or eyelids groan

the knowledge
callouses provide

biographies
the spines confide

what empathies
one gaze may phrase

petitions
any bent knee prays

where wrists would weep
or necks then cry.

The body sings
to signify.

Attend the gestures
and your own:

the literature
our lives intone.