If my bones could speak they would tell you about how I wore them into battle like a cage and how I quivered on their insides as my heart shivered in my chest and my blood was sent thump-thumping out into the corners of my body.

If my bones could speak they would tell you of their aches and how they hurt in the mornings when I close my eyes against the cheerful chirp of my alarm clock and I brace myself. Because I know that in motion lies pain.

If my bones could speak they would tell you of a hundred thousand minutes spent dancing, and of how the music lingers in them even now and how my bones sing to me at night if I’m very still and very quiet.

If my bones could speak they would tell you that we used to be invincible and unbreakable and when the little kids played at taunting, when they sang about sticks and stones hurting their bodies — my bones knew that words were still more dangerous.

And they whispered to me their fears.

If my bones could speak they would tell you of all the times we fell or walked our growing hips into counter corners and door knobs. They would tell you of the times we forgot how tall we were and bumped our head. They would tell you of the moments when we ached with fever and curled up in pain.

If my bones could speak they would tell you about they way the vertebrae of my spine jostle together when we run and how this prevented us from fleeing the feelings of isolation that grew inside of us, blooming into those strange and shifting years that linger between childhood and self-actualization.

But most of all if my bones could speak they would tell you about the day I failed to hear them for the first time, and about how their voices grew louder until my bones clamoured in my body and I felt them shake me to my core but still I could not hear their voices, had forgotten the timbre of their tones.

If my bones could speak they would tell you of the day they woke up alone.

Author’s note: If you’d like to hear this piece in my own voice, check out the video below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V0ahdXdPvM

As always, I’d love to hear from you… what do your bones have to say? Let me know in the comments below! (And if you liked this poem, please share!)