Do you know how voice works?
Why each is unique,
yet in sisters vary
by only an increment or two?
Webster states
air vibrates folds of the larynx.
Is there an instrument to measure
voice's endless calibrations
of volume, pitch, and timbre?
Will your voice give
you away,
break before you know
you're sad,
lie after years of practice?
If only you could harvest
each vital voice,
distill to essential oil,
harbor in clouded vials,
to inhale, and anoint
the soles of your feet,
the lids of your eyes,
the hollows of your ears.

Published in an anthology entitled “Wildacres Poetry 2002”