_Tongue_

I have no tongue to speak,

Except for that

Which I have witnessed

That which I have,

But bares the evidence

Of witness.

What is a tongue,

That speaks only of itself,

Only if its desire

Its ritual of pain

It suffered days,

By memory of trauma.

I have only a tongue,

That shapes to my thought

Shapes to my moment.

What is a tongue,

That contorts

For gain

Through medium of victim

Through temptation of man,

That loaths the truth,

Though before it

Is truth by data,

Information of the untaught.

I have a tongue,

That once spoke idle,

That once weaved with jealousy.

What is a tongue,

That cannot speak

Of its own flaws.

What is a tongue,

The licks the past

Yet drips venom for the future.