Vocabulary in Tissue

Allowing light to pass through but not completely see-through; here describing paper or skin thin enough for light to filter through without being fully transparent.

Extremely thin, delicate paper — or by extension, the thin layer of human skin; the poem uses both meanings to connect fragile documents with the fragile human body.

Written or printed records proving that a payment or transaction has taken place; here they represent the everyday paper trail of human commercial life.

Official documents issued by a government that record a person's birth and establish their legal identity; the poem treats them as paper-thin instruments of institutional control.

Official government approvals required before buildings or land can be developed or altered; they represent bureaucratic power over physical space.

Lasting for only a very short time; here applied to paper documents and human life to suggest that nothing written down is truly permanent.

A slow, gentle movement carried by air or current, without fixed direction; the poem uses it to suggest that paper buildings would shift and float rather than stand rigid.

A long, soft breath let out slowly; used here to show how little force — just a breath — would be needed to bring down structures made of paper.

To change something in a meaningful way; in the poem it suggests that the fragility of paper — and of the power written on it — has the potential to transform society.

Cut or marked into a surface permanently, as with acid or a sharp tool; here it describes words or identities inscribed on skin or paper as if they were fixed forever.

Sending out or glowing with light; the poem applies it to human beings to suggest they shine with an inner light that no document can contain or define.

Lines drawn on maps or on the ground that divide one country or territory from another; the poem questions their authority by noting they exist only as marks on fragile paper.