Case Study #20: Akinetic Mutism
                        [let's say you came back too soon]

here is more space than
thought before
—and greater hunger—
where quiet is

that year I was too long
on my knees
says someone behind the wall

and then her chains fell off
she had an
apparent-horizon
in her room

a lattice-door
expanding
then lessening to

a day of legs apart
arms folded
it is but a wrapped-alone
day—she says each time—I can
no longer hear you each morning

how long were you
locked up?
I ask in mind-to-mind-transfer

she follows me
to the hallway
—Just think a tiny numeral—

tap-tap goes the inch-by inch time

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Copyright © 2017 Jane Lewty All rights reserved
from In One Form To Find Another
The Cleveland State University Poetry Center
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission