Interoception

Today you learn this word
for that deeper information

channel keeping tabs on the body
from within— Like an eye

inside the operating system,
like a lever beneath the million

levers of the machine. All
day long their subtle ticking:

imagine brain-not-brain-only,
the wash from one emotion

to the next; how much it takes
to move one finger in one hand,

then two, then five; to rise
from bed to window and pull

the curtains back, for light
to buoy and flood the cell.

In the pause between a sip of coffee
or water, the shift from anxiety

to surprise or rage. The salted
caramels of nostalgia, the wilted

leaves of doubt and grief. So many
pulleys and windows. So many eyes.

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