Craniosacral Rhythms
Earthquakes everywhere my head
hurts till she touches.
Her hand on my forehead.
Her hand on my breastbone.
Blood magma and lymph touch plates
send them shiver,
suspend in skin sacks
the corrugated surface of the cortex.
Fissures and sulci: larger and smaller divisions,
huge surfaces wrapped inward. Our memories fold
around each others’ fingers. Let me kiss the spot
where the electrodes fastened to her temples
reset neurons, Frankensteinian fire
old techniques of fluids, electricity, and storms.
Continents beneath, iceberg depth
into the brainstem, reptilian ur-mama flaps her tail,
search for connection. Japan may fold,
California inch further away from Nevada:
we rest here, our plates in thrall with each other,
ping our way into our skulls, cover, cover,
till the borders break open cannot release
member post-traumatic recursions
member vulnerable stories
we burn white bright.
Notes:
This poem only appears in the digital edition of Poetry and is reprinted from: Kuppers, Petra. "Craniosacral Rhythms" from Gut Botany. Copyright © 2020 Wayne State University Press, with the permission of Wayne State University Press.