built into my shoulder
to bind the sinew to the bone,
the viscera to the meat.
One of metal, of plate, of screw
to deflect javelins of words
spears of intent:
the weapons women wield.
Deep below the surface of flesh
lying between riven bone,
socketed steel
the wound festers, grows fevered
sending electrical tendrils of warning:
the barrier fails.
A lodestone of iron
forged from the iron wall
charged powerfully, woefully
by the currents of nerves, neurons
swarming through my body:
I am aligned to her
as moon to earth.
She has but to unseal slow-strung lips
permit scant few words to flow
for the shield to fall
and I to fail.
