flit, flit
eyes wide as I
listen hard in the thick silence.
See, when I was six,
a man came in my house
beat silence into time-out corners.
In a quiet so dangerous
arm hairs have a language on sheets
and eyelashes scream
even when you don't
And it’s not so much that I'm angry as
flipping coins
in and out of slot machines
pump like drugs in and out of veins; hearts; brains.
Chemicals changing so quickly I'm not sure which line I'm on
getting off the subway car.
Staggering… catching my balance, my mind
you in your powerful uniform
I want to pull that seal up over your head like a hockey jersey
and beat the quiet away
with the butt of your own gun.
I want power over the quiet
over me and my loud eyelashes
I rise & stand before the mirror
smiling as I snip them off
***
In her previous lives, Karin Mitchell has
worked as a special education teacher and caseworker for Social Services.
She is currently a tutor of college students in writing, elementary students in reading,
and am raising a family, writing, skiing, and generally living well. She
is enrolled in a Master’s program at Regis University for Creative Writing. She
speaks Swedish because she likes to learn things she can't use, except at
family functions and to watch foreign films without reading the subtitles.
