How do you measure pain?

The coldness of a frog?
The taste of pineapple?

Here is what to do
when you are lost:

pronounce the word
love as "no"
and wear the same shirt
for three years without telling
yourself.

Collect shadows
of birds, the prints they leave
on the sidewalk,
and hide yourself in that sunless
space.

When you are hungry
bite your thumb at hunger
and when you are angry
sing songs to an empty window

and when the morning comes 
too soon
stretch your muscles against 
the sky and know,
from the center of your bones,
that there is a room inside your chest
and it is full of secrets you've kept 
from yourself. 

Enter. 
Further in.
Embody yourself.