La Bouche

Lately,

I've been watching

the expressions of mouths

and their subvocalizations

their secret agendas

which I may not have noticed

until this year

when they became hidden

under our masks

exotic like a flash of 

Victorian stocking.

Mine is saying

I will laugh with you

until you hurt me

I’m smiling with my eyes

because it is 

expected of me

but my lips can be free

under their covering 

to express the truth 

hidden inside me

like the kernel of the nut. 

His lips are saying

I am about to laugh

make it funny enough

then it will be worth my time

her mouth is questioning me

is this asymmetrical girl 

a disaster machine 

or just incomprehensible

and maybe filled with mischief

and your lips are waiting to kiss mine

so that I will be quiet

and stop spilling poetry

all over the house.