For Shy Women in Solitude

For Shy Women in Solitude

Those of us who live in cages

pause to open cupboards

itemize and arrange boxes and cans

of prepared foods we eat

when we are not hungry

and we wash our plates unsated

 

our voices are tinny and crackle

we know the days of turning pages

the drowning waters of our tears

nights when we hunch

under a mound of blankets

touching our own skin

we imagine another's hand

our nipples erect, expectant

beneath a stomp and shout moon

 

curl our arms around our own backs

until it feels almost as if we are not alone

but then our breasts shrivel in waiting

and we get up to the assault of silence,

pace, stopping only to look in the cupboards,

to wind the ticking clock