my name was coated in the huskiness of his voice,

the pervasive drumming in my heart echoed into my skull.

dragging my feet across the room,

while drowning in the dusk of their silence.

thumb pacing across the plump tips of my trembling fingers,

one-two-three-four, four-three-two-one, repeat.

my clammy hands sliding along the seams wrapped around my thighs,

as my body weighs down on the frontline,

before their darting eyes.

i detached from my act as a cat on a hot tin roof.