Home

Hold your tongue between your teeth
every time you hear the slightest
slight, each night you feel unwanted
touches from unhaunted spaces, each
apology ringing more hollow than bone
burning like shame smeared across
your face, a handprint made by hands
that should know how to love
but don't. Sip a second cup of fear,
hear your heartbeat breaking
the silence, swallow the words
until violence becomes and begins
and breathe until flames consume
the rage and the pain and the shame
and

[...]

Character Cures and Plot Poultices: A Bookpothecary. The proprietor watches as Anna doesn’t even read the sign above the door before she pushes her way inside, eyes translucent with an unshed ocean of tears. Her face reveals months of pain, a boil of a boyfriend recently lanced and finally spilling out its pus, risking future infection.

[...]

You could tell my story out of order
for dramatic purposes –
end before beginning,
effect before cause,

[...]

The storm had already torn the night apart. The deck shook beneath me, ropes screamed, water struck hard against the hull. I stood there, soaked through, staring into the waves.

[...]