What kind of word is because?

It’s like that rubber ball

you have to squeeze between your teeth

when they cut open your stomach with questions,

no anaesthetic.

 

What kind of word? Both answer and question,

it can’t be turned about like a ship.

It’s not so much a word as a border to another land:

gardens rustling with olive trees,

and mischevous girls with wide smiles

and laughter like frothed milk.

Women with tanned arms,

men with children on their shoulders...

if you jumped recklessly into their sea

perhaps they’d rescue you,

or maybe you’d get caught in a fishing net...

 

What kind of word is because?

It’s like all those children’s games:

‘jump over your own bloodstream’,

‘freeze’, ‘hide’, ‘get lost’,

‘shut tight’, ‘go blind’...

 

What kind of word is because?

Consonants

dangling from the gallows of vowels.

Your answer to my question,

God.