Suffocation

I held the score card

For checkers

A game I didn't know

A game I didn't play

I couldn't balance

The moves

I couldn't see

The faces

I stood behind

A glass wall

All day

I chip and scrape

At the surface

All night

I fill in the cracks

Unconsciously

In the morning

It is glossy

And smooth as

The day before

They can all

See me clearly

If they saw

The scratches

If I hadn't filled in

The broken bits

They would no longer

Recognize this face

But the wall

Still stands

The glass is tinted

And I cannot touch

A single one of them.

I had a dream

All last night

About a pendant

I had lost

But in the morning

When I awoke

I didn't know it

Hadn't seen it

And wondered

If I had ever

Had a pendant

To begin with.