Every word
a land mine
buried under thick skin
drowned in venom
mauling at teeth

a shoreline shudder

Hardened men
tiptoe around a sentence
a rosebush infested
crawling with
depraved lions
masked in solitude

and then the pounce

the way
boiling a *** of water
brings a blizzard

the way
a twig snaps underfoot
in the dead of night

the way
a clenched jaw
met a quiet tongue
at a cafe
called each other
red
dead
underfed
and one to another said

where do we go?