MICHELE AMAS

Flinch

Trust is a vicious dog
tethered to an umbilical leash,
I made you flinch
in an angry room
air full of alphabet, thunder clap sense
my sudden turn, something sharp
in my eye and you sweetest of cells
thought I would hit you.
Unguarded you stood as painful as hope.
What was that ghost fear I saw in the split second
of your face, that had no echo but I hear it over
left no mark but a litter of glass between the reach for you:
find a formula, invent a formula, your flinch lives under my skin
furious memory in tissue, I am an editor splicing frames
backwards forwards, I am a scientist distilling vapour
lost in condensation.
Unguarded I stand as painful as hope.
Let me sew name tags on your clothes.
Let me give you back to you.

___________
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