These children terrify me
facing me in rows
fragile order and alignment
tensile thread crisscrosses the room
forever stretching and giving
more inches and more miles

Is it tightly wound for some?
digging into ankles
and fleshy sides
scoring young skin
peeling and opening
ancient harassed scabs
notches on a wooden plank

All is unknown to me
eyes seem to cloud over
in hatred without pain
tongues loll over
razor wire teeth
set to bite rip tear
wild animals masquerade
in lycra-blend pants
fur hoods
toques and hats the size of buckets
do they cry India ink tears
backwards into fading pink brains

Even as I sit
one figure facing them
sending signals from behind
an ugly too-small desk
messages get tangled up
obscured from me to them
a knot of shared pain and memory
spins above our heads
ripping out chords that attach us
spitting blood bone teeth
a meat grinder
overflows from upstairs
a bathtub left running
for a hundred years