Ali Lynn Poet Free verse

Temptations Of the Flesh

Even with 
The cross 
Around his neck 

And the childhood
Anxiety over 
An imaginary man’s judgement 

His thoughts 
Were more iniquitous 
Than my own 

He would delineate the way 
Shower droplets 
Languidly glide down my skin 

Leaving behind 
A flushed path 
On my pallid complexion 

That no longer 
Wears the perpetual damage 
Of past men’s temper 

Because his eyes 
Can’t fervor over 
A dilapidated temple 

But he’ll keep
The maze of scratches 
My nails leave 

As it clutches 
The outline 
Of my skeleton 

While whispering 
His name 
In the inflection 

That causes 
claustrophobia in the breath
as it stumbles in his throat 

He would sketch 
Those scenes for me 
In my head 

Except he enjoyed 
Exorcising 
Every trait of me 

Cutting off 
Every strand 
Of bleached hair 

Make my hands 
Sit in gray water 
Until all the black nail polish wore off 

Ripping the piercings 
From my ears 
To fill the holes 

With the chants of hymns 
Fading out the dense screams 
I was raised by 

But it all 
Fell flat
More than how he felt about the earth 

It made me wish those words 
From the mangled pages 
In that book 

Were hand fed 
To me 
By him 

With coquettish eyes 
Leaning into
Every idiom 

Until 
My stomach 
Feels abhorrent 

From the nocuous ink 
As it snuck onto 
My tongue  

Just so I can say 
I spit his deception 
Back into his mouth 

And even then 
His thoughts would still be 
More iniquitous than my own

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