"riding the newness of this voice the training wheels screeching as I round each bend once an angel, now an anchor dragging stirring up muck what I am saying is not what you’re hearing a bellowing crescendo I feel my sides split open" I wrote the above poem on a voice/body retreat in early 2019 and was inspired to further explore the occurrence of this “split.” I feel myself bursting at the seams, but where are my seams located? Are they my barreled ribs, respiring with environment, resonating as I empty? Are they the corners of my mouth, opening to engulf or let out? Are they the chords that stretch and contract in my throat, visible to mirrors on the walls and in others eyes? Are they my fingers and toes, each with their own mind of what to reach, how to touch? "splitting at the seams" is an examination of this tension. It is an exploration of the physiology of my voice, as it visibly stretches and strains, and the histories held in its folds. Trans bodies are often objectified and sexualized in media. Here, attention is placed on a desexualized and androgenyous focal point, the throat, as two voices of the same body explore less familiar themes of trans corporeal vulnerability and exposure. July 2019 copyright Robin Rutenberg