self-exam (my body is a cage)

156 Do this: take two fingers, push them into the spot behind your ear, the spot your skull drops off into that valley of muscle & nerve—this is the muscle that holds up the skull, that nods the dumb bone this way & that up & down, when you think you understand , when you think you get it—press deeper into the gristle, find that little bundle of nerves—the nerves that make you blink when bewildered by daylight, that make your tongue slide in & out when you think you’re in love, when you think you need a drink, touch that spot as if you had an itch as if it were a button, as if you were an elevator, close your eyes & listen, please, close your eyes—can you hear it? We think our souls live self-exam (my body is a cage) nick flynn 157 in boxes, we think someone sits behind our eyes, lording from his little throne, steering the fork to the mouth, the mouth to the tit, we think hungry children live in our bellies, clutching their empty bowls as the food rains down, we sometimes think we are those hungry children, we think we can think anything & it won’t matter, we think we can think cut out her tongue, then ask her to sing ...