To Silence –From Defiance

By Meg Kelley

The silent slip of

My tongue over the

Glassy roof of my

Mouth caught on

12

Nails

One was my avoidance

One was my resistance

One was my ignorance

One was my persistence

Sealed with a staple

Swallowied to tear

Fleshy twists

Embalmed in this

A coffin

A code

You do not speak

This poem’s ending

You do not describe

This book’s cover

Twirling in-between

Two-dimensional

Hands

The bright lines between

Should and should not

Borrowed from a past

You can only hear as a muffled

Crush, but the footsteps get louder

Now, a checked-out book

Gets tossed back like a bomb

In an unraveled pause

Waiting for you,

Slithering out of the

Dark,

To explode in

Defiance.

Meg Kelley is a writer, plant lady, and yoga enthusiast. She is fascinated with using language to cultivate well-being through mindfulness and creative visualization. You find her work at mapledmeg.com