Release
Mary Winters
Something in you cringed, then
turned and fled with a muffled howl
when you saw that perfectly flat
and glowing sea; something
broke it would be wrong to fix;
something healed you denied
was among your lesions;
a clock stopped.
Something was pardoned,
maybe a smallish mammal held
in a factory-defective trap who
took advantage of a missing screw,
or that prisoner you heard scream
in a not-so-foreign country:
it was just a mistake...
at least for awhile.