I dropped my towel in front of my hotel window
and bared my chest and stomach and thighs
before peeling back my skin and dropping it
on the green and gold patterned carpet, and
the people saw the muscles of my body
twitching and pulsating, moving with each intake of oxygen
before I began pulling them away so that my bones
shone in the lamplight
before I started ripping out my ligaments
and throwing them at the glass,
watching them splatter
into shitty love poems
before I put these things
in my suitcase among
my conference clothes and
mini statue of liberty souvenir
before I asked for a taxi
and then a piece of pizza
at the airport.
