[7 MONTHS AFTER] RIGA, LATVIA

Riga wires my jaw shut I sit on the curb 
My older sister will not take off her jacket 
It is February but it is 70 degrees. I think if I 
Could just reach out and touch us: miracle.
Scrape my fingernails against asphalt I wonder
At how to speak it all the knife hovers over 
Our heads we are both tired of flinching. I hold
No one accountable but myself. I take off my hoodie. 
Molars worked smooth we sit in silence 
On the curb I scrape a gully in my right thumb.
In due time their foot will slip. Muteness swallows us whole. 

Faith Ellington is a PhD student at Louisiana State University. Her other work can be found in Blood Tree Literature, Sierra Nevada Review, and ASAP/J.