Scales and Teeth

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break it down to the cellular level
everything has scales
everything has teeth

my housemate all flesh and muscle
peels the sunburnt skin off his left arm
with a smile
he has biked hundreds of miles during The Virus
as he would have before
as he will after

you have to really like yourself to be okay alone

a girl I knew in childhood sends me updates
from Chicago
of what The Virus feels like
chest heavy
scream at the back of her throat
impossible to breathe impossible to sleep

and I think
I have had this before

from the edges of New Mexico a friend
wraps his face in a grease stained bandanna
and drives across the desert
wind whipping sand across ruddy cheeks
as he would have before
as he will after

break it down to the cellular level
evolution demands
change
and tradition demands
the same

did you know the suicide rate spiked during
the Great Depression
he asks
scooping another day’s rations of
brown rice into querying mouth
eyebrows raised

it is?
which one?

I slice mushrooms into a steaming pan
watch the fungus bend and warp
between lonely fingers
notice the scales and the membranes
notice the bite
notice the teeth