[APPLAUSE]
"Break me and I'll sing."
Break me and I'll sing.
My voice like marrow.
A blood yolk spilled upon the counter.
You can't stop this song.
More hands than yours have closed around my throat.
You may crack me.
You have cracked me.
I'm frightened,
But so what?
I'll testify.
Witness, if you can.
Listen.
I slurped the frog leg soup gone bad.
Held a brass spoon like a barrel to my mouth.
I could tell you what you want to hear,
But I'd be broken just the same.
So why not sing?
I'm singing now.
Louder this time,
And in the round.
We are a wounding of red plumed birds.
Every voice, a bloody feather in the bone crown.