soul, where are you?
are you hidden inside the air of my lungs?
are you squeezing between my intestines?
are you burning through my veins,
following each blood cell to its capillary?
if I poke a needle deep enough into
my internal organs, my stomach, my liver,
will you escape and leave me lifeless?

or are you only in my mind,
somewhere embedded in a wrinkle
of cerebellum tissue,
whispering to the rest of me
that you are here, here, here,
that you will always be here,
in the darkness and the light,
the sorrow that follows the fight?

is it my heart where you hide?
beating your way out with each
strained pump of blood?
soul, I search for you sometimes
and cannot find where you have hidden yourself
though I know, somewhere within,
you will guide me, give me what I need,
and bring me to the fate that you have chosen for me.