echo

I will silence myself
for your sake
I will wrap my tongue--and still it
in the contours of foreign syllables
for you--that blind leap
into the fractured wildness
beyond my teeth
left exposed
eloquence confined
the curl of its back
I sent it to huddle
--for your sake
far from my skull

I want your hand
not my reflections
for your sake
this room is empty
and the echoes die away