the last thing
She swallowed his words fast before
the taste: six slithering oysters of words,
every echo she had ever heard
pinned beneath an echo’s claw.
She could pick them out in the dark:
words lifting from paper in small chokes
or trolling through the bend of a cord.
I never wanted to hurt you.
It was the last thing he wanted to do
and the last thing all of them said.

Mia Moore

"Excellent use of language and setting of mood" —Kirk