Ribs

Ribs like willow tree branches sway in and out with every inhale and exhale, like the billows of an accordion. They curve like impatiently waiting fingers tapping in succession like the feet of a centipede one after another after another after another. Both pliable and immovable, flexible and rigid they hold each of us upright they provide support and protection they hold us together. Ribs to spine to collar bone to shoulders they are where the feelings hit and they fracture under the weight of important decisions. Bones are unsure but they are permanent like mammoth fossils in the dirt they cry out "remember me I was here do not forget me learn from me" they creak and ache like an oak forest in a thunderstorm heavily burdened with robins nests and bark rough from experience. Each one still growing, still repairing, still learning growing in rings like 1000 year old stumps. Ribs like willow tree branches cry out "hold me". 

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-J