do you know what it feels like to hold
an entire country inside your skin?

blooming hills and lush valleys,
thick orchards and ancient ruins
competing for room with my organs

roaming rivers and beaming beaches,
swelling springs and sun-kissed soil
extending out of my fingertips

rough roots and smooth trunks,
deep wells and foot-worn roads
pave my being from the inside out

do you know what it’s like for your soul
to be a time capsule — composed
by every level of lineage that came before
painstakingly stacked and wrapped
accumulated and intertwined?

i have memories in store
that were made before my time
i see dreams
that couldn’t have originated in this mind
this life is ours, not mine

do you know what it feels like to hold entire bloodlines in your singular circulatory system?

i am always brimming, overflowing

bursting at the seams