words get stuck and they stick like keys for keyboards or fingers in locks late at night when doors shut and firecrackers break and the loud unexpected noises of life in the dark are like the only thing keeping me close to sanity in this room where i rock and rock alone waiting for no one and nosleep and the tick and tick time bomb of the way everything moves too quickly in the light to slow down to stop the fingertips the lips the eye lashes steadily licking you away from me