slipping through a groping fist… strange fist groping at… at… her native tongue resurfaces… from the cradle… from mother’s milk…forming sounds… sounds like no… foreigners deaf to no… adequately expressed… speak English!... but she can’t… she can’t… gibberish garbled in her throat…congealed from the inside… speak! {error} speak! {error}…suddenly… indubitably… he!…unadmitted… swine!...door left unlocked… having forgotten to lock…brought her home without keys…carried on his shoulder… a friend… helping hand…by a friend… since she met him… day one… fat black eyes, dirty handshake… playgrounds…those same pigtails sinuous in his fingers… friendship… firm… invitations to places… introductions to people…been in her room before… some cousins to know of… mario kart in his basement… pizza on trampoline forts…sharing generously… growing new body parts… sheltered…without doubt?... certainly not!...how could she… not to see it coming… a girl and a boy…together… as friends…?... not to trail the wicked scent… perhaps unassuming…perhaps mistaken… unaware… naive… guilty… secretly wanting… once or twice a flirt… in sobriety dripping with meaning… he reads…pours tequila into shot glasses… her language stinks of filth to interpret as… in that tight skirt… combinations of… stop right there!... can it?... when it comes down to it…guilty…guilty…guilty…there in her body… there in her hands… and the cameras…a still life…friends seeing it happen…seeing it all happen… indelible…the guilty party… fine!...let it be this way… crumbs for the world… chewed on in daylight… school hallways chattering like shivering teeth…goosebumps…her flesh…feed the hungry… fed to friends…he… notches in his ribs… on her… grating… somewhere in the room… but she can’t speak… can’t see… on the desk somewhere… a hairbrush… a stone…to fight with…fight back…she can’t move… fight back…  and hurt a friend…how the story goes… pitched in the courtroom… self-defense…when judgment day comes…and if it comes… who protects friends?...she…she… language unserving…there in her body… there in her hands…there in her body…there in her hands…a friend…and she…she…says nothing…does nothing…in this room… in…slipping through a groping fist… strange fist groping at… at… her native tongue resurfaces… from the cradle… from mother’s milk…forming sounds… sounds like no… foreigners deaf to no… adequately expressed… speak English!... but she can’t… she can’t… gibberish garbled in her throat…congealed from the inside… speak! {error} speak! {error}…suddenly… indubitably… he!…unadmitted… swine!...door left unlocked… having forgotten to lock…brought her home without keys…carried on his shoulder… a friend… helping hand…by a friend… since she met him… day one… fat black eyes, dirty handshake… playgrounds…those same pigtails sinuous in his fingers… friendship… firm… invitations to places… introductions to people…been in her room before… some cousins to know of… mario kart in his basement… pizza on trampoline forts…sharing generously… growing new body parts… sheltered…without doubt?... certainly not!...how could she… not to see it coming… a girl and a boy…together… as friends…?... not to trail the wicked scent… perhaps unassuming…perhaps mistaken… unaware… naive… guilty… secretly wanting… once or twice a flirt… in sobriety dripping with meaning… he reads…pours tequila into shot glasses… her language stinks of filth to interpret as… in that tight skirt… combinations of… stop right there!... can it?... when it comes down to it…guilty…guilty…guilty…there in her body… there in her hands… and the cameras…a still life…friends seeing it happen…seeing it all happen… indelible…the guilty party… fine!...let it be this way… crumbs for the world… chewed on in daylight… school hallways chattering like shivering teeth…goosebumps…her flesh…feed the hungry… fed to friends…he… notches in his ribs… on her… grating… somewhere in the room… but she can’t speak… can’t see… on the desk somewhere… a hairbrush… a stone…to fight with…fight back…she can’t move… fight back…  and hurt a friend…how the story goes… pitched in the courtroom… self-defense…when judgment day comes…and if it comes… who protects friends?...she…she… language unserving…there in her body… there in her hands…there in her body…there in her hands…a friend…and she…she…says nothing…does nothing…in this room… in…slipping through a groping fist… strange fist groping at… at… her native tongue resurfaces… from the cradle… from mother’s milk…forming sounds… sounds like no… foreigners deaf to no… adequately expressed… speak English!... but she can’t… she can’t… gibberish garbled in her throat…congealed from the inside… speak! {error} speak! {error}…suddenly… indubitably… he!…unadmitted… swine!...door left unlocked… having forgotten to lock…brought her home without keys…carried on his shoulder… a friend… helping hand…by a friend… since she met him… day one… fat black eyes, dirty handshake… playgrounds…those same pigtails sinuous in his fingers… friendship… firmf