The Twitch

My left eye began its rhythmic jump,

a small, insistent, maddening drum.

Just as you were speaking, a sudden bump

of muscle, a beat that left me numb.

I tried to hold it still, to force it down,

to blink it out, to make it cease.

But there it went, a nervous frown

upon my face, stealing all my peace.

Like a faulty wire, a shorting current,

it just kept going, a private quake.

Ignoring all my will, an errant

signal, for goodness sake.

My body, a machine, with its own small, mad will,

doing things I cannot, for the life of me, still.