Tom Holmes

MY MOUTH (AN APOLOGY)
after Musô Soseki

I left my mouth
        hanging on the wall
With the front door
        shut & locked
I walked away
        I enjoyed listening
& people talked
        confidently
without my replies

        At the house
the mouth ate
        its way down
commenting after
        about wall paper
splinters & knots
        about how to craft
a real hook
        Chairs unable to run
crossed their legs
        Lights dimmed
The mouth mumbled
        to the oven
Use steady-state heat
        The oven door flattened its lip
The phone trying to hide
        squeezed the cradle
rearranged its numbers
        hoped it wouldn’t ring
& prayed I didn’t forget
        again to lock
the phone book in the safe
        for the Judge declared
last time
        another instance
he’d slap on a gag order
        & lock me
in a chamber of ears
        as if the mouth
& I are one

–from Rattle #28, Winter 2007

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