Test Drive

You gnawed on the plastic wrap
and forced my chest open
so you could taste my heart beat
before deciding whether to chew, or spit
me out like a pellet gun aiming straight for my skull.

That is how the wire snapped, your teeth clenched
around fresh love like the Sunday roast your mother cooked
when a girl called Anna left you –

‘I want to be the one in control‘ you say
as you count the wrinkles below my hair line
and press your knuckle lips onto mine.