For My Father

You said no to earrings
not because God said
we mustn't wound one another
or even ourselves
but because we bless Him
every Day of Atonement
for forming us
out of spaces and cavities
nooks and hollows
the way that we are
and I thought of our ears
and our lungs and our nostrils
like so many dark caves
carved by God, fully charted
and even our guts
twisting round, twisting round
but in the end
it is mostly redundant
though you lie in the stars
as much as the ground
piercing my eyes
like titanium barbells
with cubic zirconia
pierce my ears
after so many years
facing my freedom
and they don't hurt at all
they look pretty
and I take how they shine
like your stars as agreement
for we form around spirit
and spirit flows through us