_

Novocaine careens up
the left side of your face:
blunt fingers palpate
a puffy cheek, a suddenly
swollen eye-lid,
the left nostril
tingles thickly beneath
deadened skin, as gaping holes
close in your propped
open mouth.

Black velvet curtains
open achingly slowly:
see the frame of a room
with ceilings removed,
mesh screen walls
confine two inhabitants
with knees nearly touching
sitting statuesque on
old wooden chairs
in turquoise corners.

They try to escape the circle
of their own chained fingers
hands clasped behind their backs
to fall heavily, pushing
screened walls open.
Space enlarges asymmetrical.
He and she separate
sit framed in opposite
turquoise corners.
Lights, crash, silence.
They stick their tongues out
at each other, totally still.

Sudden run
collide, push, pull,
frenzied physical
interrogation ends
at stalemate:
chained by cheeks
pinched by the other’s
fingers. He pulls the skin
away from her jaw.
She has his face’s flesh
between her small fingers.
They let go.

A study of human relationships:
two people flung
fling selves together again.
Again the weight of one body
crushes the other. She bears
his entire weight curled
over her narrow shoulder
unfolds his stiff body straight.
They separate
into turquoise corners.
He writes in a marble
composition notebook.

She fingers the edges
of an old white sheet.
They meet midway:
exchange paper for
fabric, re-exchange,
corners fray,
notes fall. Four
corners held in
four fists flailing,
palms burst open,
fabric in flight
falls to floor.

A stranger fills
his right palm
with your left cheek.
You watch
his knuckles trace
your cheekbone hidden
beneath shut off flesh, feel
the horror of absent pain
embedded inside your closed
covered mouth.