It’s only a matter of time,

and not only time that mattered.

Nociception, known as pain reception, is really a response to violence. What happens when we identify pain, but not the harm that caused it? The words but not the mouth. What sting, what black and blues over what eyelids and what fists hole up

in those gaps? By the time it happens, what do we call all this —

that’s been happening all along?