until you are dead

You are intense

the personification of fear walking into a room

a thundercloud above your head

yet you sit down quietly,

so quietly and never speak

you are the only one that does not jitter their foot, tap their leg,

twist their back

crack their neck

it is you,

unfazed you can sit for hours

the rest of them think you're elsewhere

or until you are dead

but i know you're more here than all of us are here

the eclipse beside me

the dark cloud above your head

i can hear you whisper of the end

i can hear you screaming for the end

heart beating rapid breathing fingers

trembling

the specter of noon that lies under your desk

wrapping your feet and pulling them

that solid state

a sudden character shift-

invisible webbing form your mouth into a smile

when someone makes a joke,

i can see your lips sew themselves outwards, your tongue pushes out, your diaphram squeezed to declare words

as if you care