On a quest for my beliefs, I consider
undressing them here on the butcher block.
I remove the skin, the muscles and tendons
of my opinions,
I strip out nerves and veins of my schooling,
collapse the lungs of assumptions, delete
the guts of what I do not need.
What’s left? The tingling skeleton
of fundamental me, the workings of my heart
filled with the Heavy Questions
and the pure organic wonder at being alive
to ask them.
Jennifer Pratt-Walter (she/her) is a Crone, poet, photographer and professional harpist. She loves to recognize and draw attention to the small everyday miracles of living in the world. She has been fortunate in having work featured in a number of print and online collections. No Ai is ever used in her work.