Speaking in tongues

Speak tangles of god and ungodly
Gibberish I won’t understand
And I will watch the creases and
Plains of your face form delicate shapes,
Minute electrical arrangements
Only muscled lips can make.
What hidden impulse of lip and tongue
On teeth sculpt the sound of please.
Even the navel strains to speak, subtly
Sinks, pushing air to rub against the throat

And somehow, in concert, these liminal ministrations,
These libidinal deliberations become speech,
Become an orchestra of fleshed breath,
Striking every pose to mean, to mean.
I mean, even my hands love the work of tongues,
Fish for unmouthed words in skin and bellymind, drag
Them out with purple pen to feed you looping
Lines that travel from my eyes to lettered keys
Into metallic neural net, cables underground,
Superhighway air to ferry brain sound. How
Many ways does the tongue translate its need
Into matter all to connect you to me.

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the yogis have a word for it

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the evolution of literacy