Gears

The bluntness of the simile
feels like the fraying 
of metals on metals.

Each tooth cannot know
what it means to pause to
consider consider consider

the meaning of the jaw behind the bone
and where the instructions come from
to hinge and grind and chew.

Mouth-teeth know how to wait
while an open-mouth breath
shallowly develops its airy theme.

Re-enter the oxygen environment
and oxygenate that blood
one iota per sublime.

The gears themselves
will operate while the operators
break and think and bend.