failure of courage is still a victory for safety

            What's inside my body is more or less the same 

    as what's inside yours—here, the river girl clutching her toy whistle. 

    Here, the black snake covered in scabs. Follow my neckline, 

 

the beginning will start beginning again. I swear on my 

head and eyes, there are moments in every day when 

    if you asked me to leave, I would. Head and eyes. Heaven 

 

    is all preposition—above, among, around, within—and if you must, 

    you can live any place that's a place. A failure of courage is still 

a victory for safety. Bravery pitches its refugee tent 

 

at the base of my brain and slowly starves, chipping into 

darkness like a clay bird bouncing down a well. All night 

    I eat garlic cream, water my dead orchids. 

 

        In what world does any of it seem credible? 

    God's word is a melody, and melody requires repetition. 

    God's word is a melody I sang once then forgot. 

 

[Kaveh Akbar {1989- } 'I Wouldn't Even Know What to Do with a Third Chance', from Pilgrim Bell]