Don’t read poetry to me.
Don’t read poetry to me!
I said “Don’t”

When I hear your voice
reading poetry
I hear, I feel,
the coercive lap of emotion,
its beguiling tow dragging me
into swell, gathering
my body, senses, soul
to raise upon its crest
of tumbled passion
break me down
consume me whole

and it is just that ocean
its inevitable rip, I wish to evade
your voice like the brush of soft feathers
on my nape; conscience a gulls cry
not quite swallowed by that shadowy sea.
No, “Don’t”!
Don’t read poetry to me.

© Deb Matthews-Zott