Awkward Conversations

White lace curtains for teeth and a window
mouth, today my words
are the glass of a shattered windowpane,
accidentally drawing blood.

You open your jaws to
speak and out comes the voice,
heavy as a bowling ball, dropping
ungracefully onto the floor

and here are your words again, dripping as
spilled milk –
you can never get small talk
just right

but this is how the light gets in:
the vent of your open mouth

that grand communion of conversation,
you open your mouth and in
pours the light and sound, and in another breath
there it goes out again
into the world.

—By Mary Beth Weidman