Living, Upended

walled isolation when a relationship hits hurdles gripped by the unfamiliar a stillness that caves in on us our small spoonfuls of conversation lack direction closed pod, defensive my near muted pleas to break free of holding back for nothing good brews in brooding sucker punch of speculation health shifting the enemy, a diagnosis to map variables, unknowable our dreams having no scale de-stabilized by no surety of self we hide behind silence like a well placed curtain balancing on slippery rock sickness life altering words perishable numbing a fall-to-pieces stillness like a windowless white room that traps the urge to breath Poem composed: October 31, 2021