Lock and Key

there are questions
i don't want to be asked, ones
i will refuse to answer.
yes, i hint and elude and
insinuate, exuding
care-about-me, care-about-me,
but do not
ask me
about that.

do not ask me why
i am so sensitive
or why i cry when we have sex, sometimes
do not ask me why
i flinch when you touch inside my knee
do not ask
why i can't turn off the lights, ever.

please,
do not press me
when we go for lunch
and i disappear for 14 minutes
and return with cherry-tinted eyes
because i can't eat from dark plates.
please,
don't pass comment
when you touch the back of my neck and i flinch
and have to leave.
let me go.

some things are too ugly to talk about.
i tuck them behind my ear
like the strands of hair he brushed away
from my face
when i was too young.

please, don't ask about that.

-j.f.