Left Eye Jitter

It started after the call,

the one about Mom’s new boyfriend,

who wears sandals with socks.

Just a tiny flutter,

like a trapped moth behind the skin

of my left eyelid.

Now it's constant,

a small, insistent drum,

a nervous tick that makes my face

feel wrong.

I catch it in the black mirror

of my phone screen,

a frantic, alien wink.

This is what stress does, I guess.

It makes you twitch.

It makes you, for a second,

not quite you.