there is a thin, permeable film
stretched across the gap between the walls of your throat

little things get by, of course

but the big things,
the things hard to swallow
and the
things hard to utter
and things you should've said but didn't
(the things that grew with time)

those get stuck
and that's why you are manually swallowing right now
trying to wash them away
but they only go back down and fester deep within your gut