here today

 

stage fright

You sit next to me while we look at her
hands around my throat, tight.
I open and close my baby bird mouth
Wanting to be fed but with what I don’t know

Behind me or maybe slightly to the left the tick tock of a minute hand
tells me the weight of this might be more than I can lift just now

It started out easy
one of those light-hearted days
One of those oh my what have I been up to?
Listing out he saids and she saids
Moving from word to word as if strands of meaning did not connect them
Pretty beach rocks tumbled together in a pile, some from years ago, some from that trip we took last weekend.
In the end I can never remember which is from where and when but I love them all still.

It started out so easy
One of those light-hearted days
I thought to deliver a small problem to play with
So I mentioned it
Off-handedly brought it in for us to look over
And that’s when words began to feel more like
That last little bit of toothpaste in a tube
when you wonder why you are even squeezing
And do you really want it

You sit next to me while we look at her
Hands around my throat, tight

Posted by: 120pages at 16:52 | link | comments |