Better Left Unsaid

when the storm breaks
and the sky clears
everything's the same.

my life bracketed
by voices
with speech patterns like my own

if i believed in souls then i might
think that one had fractured
taken residence in you
and me
and him

and every hand's a stranger and
the smiles are all obscene and when i walk past
you don't even know my name
but you want to want things
you can never claim

and when the fog dries away
and the morning brings some life
into my brain

i might find enough
good reasons
to slap all the hands away
to kick the faceless teeth out
breathe you in
and breathe you in
to me.