words fall on hot ears and
sizzle, leak a sick steam that
seeps through neck to throat
and makes language beast.
teeth clench, stubborn magnets damming the
ash, sandwich, bile that
drift like the ugliest birthday balloons
unstringed from a gut floor.
their flight drags on
for entertainment, face still veiled in
hot-sweat spit that growls with
how much unlike pool water it is,
skin stiff and heavy with resistance to
the violent few seconds that would snuff it out
easily.  its trick is you forget this.