Not Even a Word

by Jim Kopetz

"You think you know about pain? Talk to my second wife. When she was nineteen she got between a couple of fighting cats, and one of them went at her, climbed her like a tree, tore gashes out of her thighs and breasts and belly that you can still see today. She got thirty stitches and a fever that lasted for days. My second wife says that's pain. She doesn't know shit, that woman." 

                     
                      - David, "The Girl Next Door" by Jack Ketchum

pain.
pain without reason.
nothing to hold on to,
nothing to fear.
nothing to hate.

with a fist you have the bruise.
with a knife you have the wound.
a bullet leads the hole.
a flame to feel the burn,
the blister.
with a love you have the loss.
with a dream you have the failure.

but pain.
pain without reason.

where to begin?
where to look?
no shovel or pick.
no chisel to soften,
no pin to prick.
nothing.

not even a word.