Printing Blocks and Branding Irons

Articulacy of fingers, the language of the deaf and dumb, signing on the body body longing. Who taught you to write in the blood on my back? Who taught you to use your hands as branding irons? You have scored your name into my shoulders, reference me with your mark. The pads of your fingers have become printing blocks, you tap a message onto my skin, tap meaning nto my body. Your morse code interferes with my heart beat.

- Jeanette Winterson
'Written On The Body' (89)