The startle response
In babies
cat whiskers
or a change of light
or firework thudding
far off,
can cause consternation.
Usually people learn
to deflect such
attacks,
but not always.
In some, this nervousness
continues to rankle
and the tickle of cat whiskers
gives way to the tickle of
idle and malicious
conversations, reluctantly
overheard
in surgery waiting rooms,
and corridors
in office blocks,
near water coolers
and in shop doorways
or post office queues.
The whispers of counter staff,
shelf stackers,
library patrons
and whistling milkmen
can also cause incursions.
And now the slightest
twist or curve of my body
at nighttime, stirs my brain,
and only silence and lack of
movement provide the necessary
alloy to make the outside world
less sword-like, and more
fluid.
To turn emotional ground zero
into something beautiful.
A slowly shifting black hole.
Claire Sexton is a Welsh writer living in London. She has had poems published in Ink, Sweat and Tears, Peeking Cat Poetry, Hedgerow, The Stare’s Nest, and Light: a Journal of Photography and Poetry.