Rex said that if I cut myself in half
(straight down the middle:
heart to one side
cracked ribs to the other)
I wouldn’t look anything like the pictures
because they don’t show feelings;

he said my heart was more
like the roundy bit
at the bottom of the pendulum
in the science museum
the one that moves
as the earth rotates

said my ribs were
two matched birdcages
one full of sweet-singing
robins and blackbirds
the other with only my parrot in it
head to one side
reproaching me
for being away so long

Rex, I said
I’m not a bird
I can’t hop around on one leg
or manage with only one arm
and what about only half a brain?

You’ll have to work that one out with the parrot
he said