They took my mouth
they were always taking that
every other day I'd look to speak
and in the mirror just
a span of flesh
making of my chin an elbow
of my neck--a retracted fist

That's how I felt whenever
they took it away
but it only makes a thing
worse to deny its ability
to say, besides I could
always take a knife
and open another
mouth, the violent slit of which
is pretty easy to reproduce

even with the mirror's left hand