on summers day, cool grass beneath her cheek, a sunbeam tickling dust from her bones she shuts

her eyes just for a moment, fleeting, hardly worth the mention but her lapse in attention lets the deep dark secrets slither out uncoiling as they tumble from her sleep-prone mouth hissing all her rattled thoughts in sickly wisps above the earth they converge and pile upwards through the air spin footsteps and fingernails and flyaway hair crystallize a pair of rock candy eyes soften a tongue on not-quite-lies the girl sewn from secrets shakes her awake in the fall catches her stumble, stills her unsteady trembles strokes her cheek until her jaw unwinds drags her worries out to dry stitches a some-day back into her skin brushes her through with a gentle wind drops farewells across her nose taps her sinking eyelids closed tucks a promise in the pad of her thumb blows tomorrow back into her lungs the grip of winter sets fast brittle memories ice over and crack she blinks her eyes open on gray tiptoes her way through the day and spares not a thought for the warmth of a girl, frozen still, held at bay