desolate manor, vinely wrapped
reverberating trees architectured around a grated pit
history rattling in lowered bars
ravaged bone trilling against rotted iron
abandoned fur blossoming between thighs
seven years til revived purity
beads and streams dotting AND FLOWING
shrouding strangers’ lips, i’m licking the salt off
layers of flesh, stripped
don’t stop til the taste of blood
choking on my tongue
toting my guilt around vestry cloisters
craving religion like a babe craves mother’s bosom
the milk has grown sour
but i still suckle
bones outgrowing the blood i share
vibrating exhaustion reeking through threadbare sheets
pitch hanging in the air, filling borrowed breath
repelling trails of ignored dissonance,
a cornered vacuum stealing my future
trembling, soughing, distilling, croaking
looking in the glass, seeing a body that isn’t mine
husking her shell, carving to ribbons
skin racing over bones i long forgot
dripping through cracks, ladening the windowsill
my hair gathering the smoke of my city
how strange to not be myself
ventricles sprouting dishonest innocence
fractals of identity spiraled below the pool
nemesis can’t save my disintegrating echo
she’s spilling from the cracked barrow