Screech

go dumb, i plead
but my mouth screeches on

to his obvious
shock

cracking his ego
chip by chip-

now sticky eggshells
lie all over
the sink

my voice so new
sinks into a gulp

and births a squeal
like the one you hear at
slaughterhouses

he questions my discipline
and decorum too
searching, i find them

gone with my
long-wed silence

Fossilized Fear

My fear confounds

the living into death walls

and remains unpeeled long after

the mask is put to rest.

Unknown faces scorch holes in memories,

thawing cells that are now fossilized for eternity.

My eyes droop, aware of body-chilling

icicles that pierce out through toe-nails.

Known masks, like paroxysm,

asphyxiate, fusing my breath into

a sulfurous void.

A leach upon my life or a stalking lover,

it gnaws at my flesh as I succumb slowly,

hoping,  palpitating for a wisp of air,

as I breathe in more fear.