Detention

Baseball bats and salivating mouths in a square room, doors pocked

Once again I'm alone inside a crowd, a misplaced throw, a misplaced swing and everything unfolds

A microcosm of humanity, a microcosm of cold…the waves wash over another

Anxiety, proximity erupting from the chemistry of testosterone, isolated until the first fists fly

Instincts pushed to breaking points, surging bodies, snapping joints

Two shoes lost inside a fray, two socks on laminated hardwood

360 degrees into harms way

A length of lead grazed the side of my head

As others fall and others leave and others show their vampire teeth

Two chunks from my neck, four lips that drip with skin, socks that slide as the blood runs down my neck or over two strange chins

There is no way out of detention

Rage pushed a doorway down

Fear carried me past the last contusions hurled at bodies on the ground

Dizzy terrified awake in sweaty skin

"Mom, I'm never going back to school again"