no one saw the bullet move abandoning shell

& entering his body in trajectory of centipede

his body scarred with second pedicles

raised to a dying spine but it left behind

a shivering ribbon his daughter

wears to school the next day

& everyone asks & she memorizes the answers

remembering the snake of vibrating clues

because no one saw & knew for sure how

the snake moults turning the skin inside out

like she removes a sock pulling down the open end

in a grass knot in a park they used to visit

an evidence of survival - another knot just as green

an inskirt inside seed coats - contracting & engaging

& showing & breaking water like memorable sands

of sea coasts remembering entire strands of slough

& everyone asks & she answers everyone - no more

ribbons - remembering all the knots slowly undressed

by compassion of toffee wrapper butterflies she holds

out her hand you yours & we softly applaud together.

~ Ajay
21/1/2020