Eloquence
Your eyeballs are marbles in my mouth,
large, saliva-sweating, gag-making
gobstoppers, two for a penny,
keeping me silent.
They clank together, underwater
internal, secret.
Slowly they melt, sweetness slick
on shiny surfaces, releasing flavour.
I persevere, sucking,
articulating my feelings
around the scraping glass,
until, at last, perfectly
they reduce.
I can speak.
So I start to talk.
Your eyes dart across the room to me
and stop my mouth.
Amanda Bonnick is a poet, novelist and actor who lives in the city of Worcester. She helps organise a local open mic event, The Word and Sound, and also runs the Melting Pot Theatre Company.