my knee had been shaking, jerking up and down like a piston so often lately
“Stop doing that, it’s making me dizzy”,
and i turned to her and said,
“Well then, I guess you’ll just have to cut my head off..”
and she dropped her fork because i wasn’t exactly smiling
but i wasn’t being dramatic and i had kept eating, my leg suddenly conscious
of itself, or me of it, and it froze with her jaw as she stared at me and i glanced at her.
i shrugged and when she hadn’t stopped looking at my mouth or the words, i pushed myself away from the table and stood. “Goodnight”, and i left, walking down the hallway
and in the morning i could not pull myself away from the desk, i wasn’t exactly writing
and my leg would not stop unless i thought about it, but then i’d be off on some tangent
and it’d start again, the left so vigorous i briefly saw myself trembling as an old man,
eating alone in a diner where i couldn’t even hold a fork. i could no longer stop
shaking even when i caught myself.
i don’t think i even noticed it,
the food kept falling out of my mouth.