She
paints her lips with a false confidence,
smacks them together
and sits
and waits.
Her apprehension perches beside her
on the lonely park bench.
She pushes it away,
an embarrassing parent
hugging her outside the school gates.
She stitches her words together
to avoid the inevitable stumble
over ragged letters
and shards of silence
and talk so small it could be shattered underfoot
...

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