The contractors both my neighbors hired
may try to talk at me and what to do

then? Play normal? I have spent these solitary
days cataloguing the cotton candy no one

knows inside me. I try to get the gunk out
but it is sticky! Gigantic pink globules!

Therapy says all is okay in moderation–
or is that a nutritional idiom? Look,

loneliness drives toxicity to confession.
I polluted air around me for years and now

you want me to open my door to the world?

(originally published in Chronogram, Spring 2021)