Butterfly Venom
Was it worth
Butchering the butterflies
We gave each other?
Were they not
Pretty enough?
Or were they just too fragile
For your unstable world?
Your world of
Mismatched jigsaw puzzle thoughts
And drunk high school riddles
Loneliness shrugging its shoulders
Towards the fill in the blank future
You put my name in
Until you saw
How ablaze
My butterflies for you were
Fluttering
With the thoughts
Of building a family
Far from our hometown
In a blue house
With a wraparound porch
Silent
Fake smiles
Could no longer
Conceal
your thoughts
With
A clenched jaw
Casual rejection
Immersed me
Like the saliva underneath your tongue
While feeling you
Slowly pull your hand
From mine
It was like you were plucking
Each wing off
With a pair of tweezers
Mutilating their worth
With your sordid
Bare hands
Just to keep your pride
And heart from
Dangling by a thread
All the while
You scrutinized
My every move
Believing
All the nonsensical
Hometown
Rumors
And whispers
Suffocating my name
My spine
Becoming blotches
On a canvas
Depicting
Every shade
Of blue and purple
From the blows
Of ignominious remarks
You’d spit in my face
But that’s no one else’s
Blunder
But mine
I was the one
Who nodded
With the enraptured joy
Of innocent
Butterflies
In my chest
To the contract
You had laid out
Detailing the conditions of your love
And the nauseating
consequences
I’d endure
If I dare
Showed disrespect
To your happiness
But it was hard
to believe
In that moment
That the man
who who would
Gently place my hair
Behind my ears
And tell me how
pretty I was
Was the same one
Who would drink
To console his anger
Like how he wished
His mother
Nurtured him growing up
But that was after
You’d complain
That my past lovers
Were never assertive
Enough
With me
That without you
I would just be
A tempter
Constantly tasting
My lipstick in slow motion
From a low lit curb
With my pulse moaning
For the unceasing flattery
As if I already knew their name
But I only
Knew the shakiness
Of desperation
When the chair
Next to me
On my birthday never moved
No hand to hold mine
Just my own trying to
Keep my spine intact
But I discolored
Each butterfly wing
With a birthday candle
Coughing and choking
Through
Their screams
Flesh curling
Into black
Just like you wanted
Taking with them
The delicate moments of you
That I’ve turned into a memory
Your safe haven
That I’ve once made home
Is now distorted
The chair I once filled
Next to you
Surrounded by your family
Is an empty space
That will never
Be filled permanently
Cause the charade
Of your heart
Being the one eviscerated
Keeps you safe
In your
Unstable world
Copyright © Ali Lynn | Year Posted 2023
Post Comments
Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.
Please
Login
to post a comment