Awareness

Outstretched on warm, grainy earth,

freckles turn to pink turn to burn.

Voices I don’t recognize come out of the waves,

growing closer but I don’t peel my eyes

from the dampened page of a novel.

All at once, the smell of watery beer

and sweat swallows up the salty

Goan breeze. Unfamiliar hands

grab my shoulders from behind.

Damp, deep tissue massage,

a chill down my spine…

1

2

3

4

5 seconds of terror.

Words are missing,

I can’t produce a sound.

Intrusion on my flesh,

now marked with fear and fingerprints.

.

Until it’s over.

.

Our eyes meet,

into the distance he stumbles,

looking back only to slur,

“Sorry, I thought you were my friend.”