spell for their belly buttons/ with a dictionary clogging its windpipe

it’s a pretty simple story/ anyone could tell it/ we were trying to come up with my Latin name & E said it’s obviously umbilicus something/ I was like maybe it’s barnus umbilicus or riparius barnicus/ both invoke barnacles & their feathery protrusions/ invoke cords carrying blood/ invoke rivers & barns/

& driving past a Tyrannosaurus Rex on the side of a pole building we settled on riparius umbilicus/

when I was a gastropod things were pretty hard for me/ & I had a distinct opening

sounds better than umbilicus/ maybe it does/ but then again a river is always connected to its source/ ha ha geology jokes/ & all you need is Mohs scale

In English, mostly confined to medical writing

when I was a squirrel I was beautiful & I never even thought of the buttons

this week a giraffe had a giraffe in a box/ I know very little about it/ I admire the spots but I can’t click on the story/ it repulses me in its affectations/ I know the bark is falling off the trees in the burn zone/ & I don’t know if it’s from being so hot or from beetles/ I fear the trees are going nuclear/ like a president or dictator/ what’s the difference between the insects laying eggs in your curtains/ & the mammal working so hard to promote Toys “R” Us/

& all of the following are true:

1. historical example: The shell is thick, imperforate (no

    umbilicus), and usually has flat, spiral ribs

2. origin: Botany, zoology. a navel-like formation, as the

    hilum of a seed

3. historical example: In this case the shell is said to be

umbilicated, and the opening referred to is the umbilicus

& standing around after the reading my students say you’re like the mom/ I cringe & the male professor laughs/ doubling across his own umbilicus/ forgetting his mother/ I’m always forgetting my mother/ we’re all guilty of erasing our mothers/ their ribs & their openings

in biology umbilicus is also the hollow or navel-like structure, such as the cavity at the base of a gastropod shell / a shell is also a fine place to raise a child/ if you’re a child/ or a hermit crab/ or a person afraid of the underground/ & the stratosphere

This experience is called a parade/ & I am plunging the future for its clogged pipe/ & this is called a routine/ & umbilicus has a root word named [ ]/ & when you kiss their faces when they are sleeping they still move their lips in a nursing motion/ it’s the same shape as a tree knot/ & this is what I call photosynthesis/

& when I was a tree I aspirated daily/ it wasn’t even dangerous/ & this is a supple climbing branch/ aka a magic portal/ this is how I got on the float/ I pretty much aced the application/ for the first time in a long time I wasn’t even overqualified/ if anything I was lacking/ save me a spot at our regular table