Nails

by Kaekanna Gintoli

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We are tired and our body is hurting,

but we have to keep feeding it 

because it must always be chewing on something 

or it will begin to eat itself.

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We ache constantly. 

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We have this body for a reason

and it contains multitudes – 

but they are contained in only 

the weakest sense of the word.

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They are beginning to slip out of our control. 

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Someone once relayed to us,

bodies were meant to hold other bodies

 but not in the way we think – 

and we understand what they meant now. 

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A couple of our fingernails chipped 

while we were moving bricks the other day; 

and it wasn’t painful, because they broke off in 

what someone else said was just the right place – 

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but we did wonder what it would feel like 

if they had broken a little higher 

and if it would be anything like this. 

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We hate having our nails dull and rounded 

like the way that they broke. 

The tips of our fingers are weak 

and bare and sticky –

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not with blood, but with the feeling of exposure –

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and we do not like it,

 but we must keep feeding it 

or it will eat itself and us as well.