infinitive

And what if I were rip out your vertebrae

bone by bone

as if taking brick by brick

out of a government barracks-building,

could you give your ribs to the work

of holding you up? (Shorter, now, oh bloody flesh,

the epidermic, the thrice

swallowed cortisone. Now injection.)

And what if you didn't need that spine?

My spine spills the ability to kneel. To kneel

is to need, where the infinitive is more than

apropos of the wet snow.