Untitled
by Luciano Iacobelli
I was a child with little to say
my thoughts and words added nothing
to a world already complete
but in grade school
I ate a piece of chocolate given to me by a kid
who laughed when I swallowed it
ha ha he said
I gave you poison
and you’re gonna die
I believed him
despite assurances from others
that the boy had played a trick
I trembled and waited for my blood to freeze
and even though it never did
I feared the death inside me
was delayed
a lazy snake
sleeping in the shade of my organs
and so a little piece of candy reversed me
drew my eyes in towards my own workings
made me wordy and thoughtful
with a longwinded hunt
for a scaly darkness
that might
at any moment
strike
This poem was published as part of Luciano Iacobelli’s collection, Painting Circles (Quattro Books, 2012).