Creature Collection

By Gianna Caputo

a thousand tiny mollusks

line the inside of my body

i am held captive

by what i cannot see

sucking tentacles

the crack of a shell,

which used to be spine

now covered in

wet, slick

barnacles

i no longer know myself

vessel

grave

sepulcher

with tiny somas

spilling forth from

my chest

through a telescope

i watch my body,

i used to be so afraid of dying

that i failed to realize

what it means

to be gone

me, a home for

a thousand tiny

creatures,

me, flesh and

nothing more,

me, bones washing

ashore in pieces

me, a collection of all

i wished to be in life,

now in death

me, forgetting what it is to wonder

about what comes

after

because that means they

will have somewhere

to live