greedy fingers
pulling
prodding
taking
throbbing
stolen flesh
beneath fingernails
wounds still fresh
missing entrails
I know you took it
bloodied hands and all
I'll take your limbs
you better learn to crawl


give back my heart.

I speak curtains
around myself
strangers hear the agony
and go deaf
they ignore the
screams of a banshee
applause rings out
at my last breath

hollowed out is
the carcass I wear
empty bones
surrounding my decay
stuff myself with
liquid despair
golden whiskey
bleaches my body grey

let me purge
away my sins
gluttony is an
endured stench
if I peel away
this being of mine
would you feel
my heart clench?

loneliness
creeps up on you
like a cold
in the midst of spring
like a rock
inside your shoe
bearable
til it starts to sting

days droop like my tired eyes
hope starts tasting like weak tea
just a hint of salty wind before capsize
heart aching like my bruised knees

I'm haunted by intertwined hands
in brave roots of daring trees
the crack in the sidewalk silently understands
being hollow yet infested with weeds

arms dislocated from reaching so far
grabbing for a man to sew up my heart
even if they leave a gruesome scar
I'd love him till he tears me apart

I know her innocent gaze
her ghost gracing the hallways
news hits harder every day
posters on poles state the phrase

"MISSING GIRL, 15"
I fear her dainty bones
lay nestled in a field of green
among nameless headstones

I know her heart-shaped face
but not her current location
I know the details of her case
but no other information


?