Common Expression

The man above me is saying something. He is
saying something over and over the same
thing. What. What are you saying, I am
saying but he is still saying what
he was saying using the sound of it to take him
where he wants to go and someplace inside me
closes and I feel nothing but know only this
cheap chosen comfort has taken a sudden twist
straight toward the worst. And all this is now
is waiting for it please to stop. Escape turned
reenactment out of nothing but one
word of language. But I don't know
that yet. I don't know that
until morning when I remember when
I heard that word before come
over and over out of a man's mouth
like that just like that.
In the afternoon sounds I can not place
keep coming out of me.
I remember not knowing
what would happen
when he stopped. Life
or death was all I thought was
at stake. Who could have imagined
this.

Frances Driscoll
Contents | Mudlark No. 2
Wild Ribbons | Ray's Sentence