Thank you Wildwood Writer and A Writer’s Voice for the double nomination, so I’ll use each of your last lines as my first…

♾️

For my ribs to open

To ask my bones to bloom,

I must unlearn the guarded hush

That built my inner room.

I must untie the careful knots

I laced through flesh and frame,

Release the iron I’d mistook

For discipline and shame.

For bones remember older songs

Than fear has ever known,

The rhythm of becoming soft,

Of standing fully grown.

So let my ribs swing open wide,

Let sternum turn to room;

And in the dark behind my heart

Let all my bones bloom.

♾️

Gary L Taylor Nicole and Sara da Encarnação … you’re up!