I carry within me the elemental bodies of salts and sulfur and nitrogen and primal gas and the cartilaginous angles of a body made for water and the undulating spine of my oceanic ancestors. I carry within me the globes of my lungs which grew to allow the gas from above the sea to commune with the constituent cells composing this body, and the articulation of arms and legs that empowered the lizardly lineage towards movement on land, and the beautiful wings and small tickling feathers that enabled my bird brethren to take flight and soar in that achingly open sky. I carry within me the heart of the matter and the pith, the voices of those birds and their warmth and the belly of my primate ancestors who birthed warm tiny babies and cared for them together because alone makes no sense but all-one does, and I carry within me the truth of all the layered complexity of my beautiful lineage and the love-worn long lines of heritage, legacy, upheaval, loss, and the plurality of life and death: the heart of the matter and the pith.
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