Inbetween Time Poem by Ames Petrossi

is the whisper of unruly hair against face,
and the press of overbite into shoulder
(perilously close to precipice)
while starlings as metaphors clamor viciously
for birdseed on the fire escape and the wind
(anxiety manifest)
attempts to thrust its way in.

we accidental peacemakers, we sleepless romantics
repel the clock’s onslaught,
rebuff impending discomfitures of daily commute,
snub volumes of work like cavernous tombs.
we bravely cling to tranquility in morning breath’s embrace.

question: how to sever limbs?
question: how to disentangle words?
excise meaning embedded in bedheads that reject sleep?
we can only resolve to entomb disquiet chestdeep,
kept caged and harmless,
biding time like a reminder:

semantics are innocuous
against the body’s knowledge.