Voiceless # 105 Claine Keily

They told her
if she told the boy that the world had made dark
the same thing fifteen times over
that there should be no fear
of stabbings
but the room dripped with blood
and she went home voiceless

This ghetto had too many rooms
too much space
too many dark corners
for poverty to hide within

None answered
the slow students
with no home
where no mothers huddled
and where there were
no lampshades or teapots
to speak of

Afterwards
the teacher returned home
to become a shadow
in her apartment
against the aging carpet
where she could not pay her rent