iii. i talk too much, i think / never been good at keeping secrets / i know, i admit it / make a mess on the floor and leave it / to soak in / ’cause never been a cold-shower type of person / a sharp wake up call in the gut / take my coffee scalding instead / and burn the tastebuds off my tongue / ‘cause maybe that way / i’ll never have to finish ninth grade / or clean out my desk / feel my heart rise in my throat / and smash my glass-half-full on the asphalt / then leave to go to work / but the world does not stop for me / even though i’d be happy to sit here in my childhood bedroom / hide under the bed where the monsters won’t find me / complacent and frozen, for the rest of eternity

3/3 of a suite of poems