(no subject)

[bellturtle]

I find myself inert
Pocketing rocks
and floating downriver

I look up and it's gone

Heavy and strange
I am full of numb
and swelling with it

I want to say,
"you shouldn't hide it,
you have a beautiful face"

but I am taught to threaten and feel
their fear, sharp and ringing
in tense, primed muscles
aching to strike