Poetry Reading at the Bookstore: Sneak Attack

The words ricochet

off the book jackets,

slyly spill over the lip

of an unexpecting eyelid,

slither through the harem lattice

of a shuttered ear,

run in succulent rivulets

washing over silenced flesh,

seeping past the barrier skin.

Dangerous in ambush,

the words infiltrate

a mind once deaf.