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Broken into shards
     or incised on the page,
          words hurt

How often has a diamond on a ring
     inscribed into the windowglass:
          "I will love you forever"

A fist punched at the words
     is bruised on the knuckles --
          but if the glass breaks ...

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Late, getting out stuff stuck in glasses, bits of food, a sodden cigarette, she thought: Polish the will if you polish anything.

She thought: We never succeed; and she held that for a long time. Later, still busy bringing it all back up to mind, she thought: I was hoping to be smooth. There were no meet words, only rules.

A body withers, working slowly, quietly, an epitaph to the inflamed, and all the course changers of the human.

The distance between one and another is intimate, but there's the matter of touching without damage. What's so easy to see through can still be sharp. A shaky hand makes and receives impairment. Confidence does it, made and broken on the wheel, turning its trick in the glittering light.

And in that light, efficient heels and correct speeds, the most skilled branches of existence... there are breakages.

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