Spearmint

Found it at the back of my drawer,

dust thick on the wrapper still sealed.

Spearmint gum from the store on Madison's floor—

I was sixteen, light-fingered, not real.

The fear came back when I held it,

that hollow breathless thing.

I can see myself walking past and felt it,

my heart doing its desperate spring

before I slipped out the door.

No one stopped me. No one cared.

But something in me's been stopped before,

and that moment's always there.