— unpredictable thoughts

It’s hard not

to jump out

instead of

wait­ing to be

found. It’s

hard to be

alone so long

and then hear

some­one come

around. It’s

like some form

of skin’s developed

in the air

that, rather

than have torn,

you tear.

(“Hide and Seek” was orig­i­nally pub­lished in “The Nia­gara River” by Kay Ryan, Grove Press Poetry Series, 2005.)