withdrawal / withdrawing the other kids learned how to kill while you were burning honey on a hot plate, expecting results chasing omens in a corner, folding in on yourself, as if iteration were a virtue and not a hiding place an everlasting gobstopper you left a candy wrapper on the table in the front hall and it was there the next day in accordance invert yourself reap the emptiness coat it with honey sparingly an earth torn into yourself as limited by the occurrence of raw materials taffy twirled around a claw as you grew up wrong in the wrong places, expecting sweetness to be enough, expecting the taste to last, setting up your musket, loading it with sucralose the other kids learned how to love as a form of killing as your honey burned as the seasons went sour to disappear to do so gracefully but not too eagerly (everyone is watching but not closely enough) to satisfy the fussiness ...