[poem] silence

[kaberett]

my teeth are tacking stitches
that pin my tongue in place
all the better to keep my mouth empty
and my life silent.

they circumscribe the acceptable
extend false promises of a future
in which we will be complete
and finished and understood.

I am hemmed in by absences
I am entirely unable to comprehend
because I don't know - have never known -
what and who it is that ought to fill them.