i am an imposter in my own skin wearing a hardened mask of flesh and hair the crocodile tears, shed instinctively yet cold-blooded egg birth gnawing at the back of my head betrays mammalian function failing, medulla oblongata revert back to childhood a boy scratching the eye with cockroach chitin this nail set perpendicular; driven with force it laid with the carpenter grand design underway the house built on bones of a broken home or maybe a spice rack, for flavor she cooked up happiness fresh and new stew, an amalgam of experience and raw ingredients now soft and palatable