aeon Ginsberg

On "Shim"

Shim, noun, a thin strip of metal used 
to align parts, make them fit, reduce wear /
I was first aware of the word in middle school,
how there was a need for a word and no one
to tell us it was not the right word, all interest
in aligning the parts to the idea of a body, make
fit, reduce, reduce, reduce /
Shim, noun, not quite a boy, not a real
woman / example / is that human,
that he-she, that shim /
example / she is not a woman for how
she believes herself to be, that's a shim,
or, synonym, something flaming or, 
synonym, combustible or, synonym,
to be laid onto a pyre or, synonym,
if you burn someone at the stake you will
gain five more minutes of warmth.

I research shim the same way I research 
everything else; how long will it take
for me to die after being one?
A friend is followed by a military man,
which is to say someone who wishes for
Chelsea Manning to not pass out as
the flames lick her screaming mouth, 
and the police pull my friend over,
let them be doused for how easily
the parts align / and
making a body fit into a machine
to be able to watch it leave you /

Shim, verb, wedge to fill space,
and we do so overcrowd this planet,
we are losing water, food, and autonomy,
when the ocean drowns the land, whose
bones will we use to build boats of?
Whose going to fill the caskets or, synonym,
who will eat all of the bullets or, synonym,
who will we let ourselves consume when
the non-human animals perish or,
   
antonym,
   
I drift through crowds like a ghost,
I am a ghost, I am spectator or
spectre, or no one sees me in what
would not be called a campfire or
in this world the same pieces used 
to align machinery will be used
to destroy it, to throw ourselves on
the cogs of that which kills,
when they see my body
burning the world, they will only
be able to call out
my name open-mouthed
and without breathe.