Bark

Paper spiders everywhere 
Crawling through pinholes in my brain
Cutting the corners of my mouth
Tartaric taste curls my tongue 
Forming words I would never say

An inferno of verbs 
Flying through gutted roots
It’s warm butter to a blade
Until the right ones land and spread
That's when they begin to ricochet

     You’re only hurting yourself. 
   That’s what they tell me anyway 

I’m a dirt digging plant
Living in the embers of memories
That took decades to slowly fade
Put out in tiny doses 
On a slow drip of acid rain

It’s the smell of melting gospel
Revealing monstrosities 
Awoken from pits of smothered rage
It’s inhumane 
To mistreat animals like this
Yet they do nothing 
As innocence is stripped away

Some of us still live in cages
Gnashing teeth 
Snapping necks at the end of chains
Some of us still live in the embers
Feeling a burn that never fades

I’m recording scars in tree rings
As bark covers wounds with age
Building cages for the demons
Nesting in my conjured rage
Copyright © | Year Posted 2021

Poem

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Murray Avatar
January 15, 2024 at 12:38 AM
I can feel the words against my skin and my scars
Inman Avatar
February 8, 2023 at 10:41 AM
Very well written. People who can not care for an animal should not have an animal, but I believe this write is also a metaphor for the human condition as well. Your anger is well placed.
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