You're a blood stain on a wedding dress and through countless bottles of bleach you still refuse to fade.

I scrub my teeth until my gums bleed, but I can't get rid on the feeling of your tongue in my mouth.

I'm scratching at my arms because I promised I'd never use a razor blade again but your hands were daggers that cut out my arteries and left me bleeding out while I  begged you to stich me up.

Your drunken eyes were bloodshot the night you drank so much you vomited blood, I took you to the emergency room, and in your hallucinogenic state you muttered her name, not mine, and I swore I would die that night.

My parents prayed and prayed to a god who turned the Nile into a river of blood that I would leave you, but I always had a hard time leaving a problem unsolved, and the blood that gathered at the surface of my skin in the form of bruises was my problem to solve, not yours.

The broken glass of your whiskey bottle left cuts on the bottom of my feet as I snuck out that December night, and left blood stains in the snow for you to find on Christmas morning.

As I clutch the photo of us all these years later it is my tears which splatter over our faces, not my blood.

My scars are innumerous, and so are the stars, and I would have given both for you to love me.

No amount of blood transfusions could replace what you took from me.

My A negative blood will never work for everyone but it is enough to save the lives of those bleeding out on operating tables with families begging for another day like I begged for you when you would have let me die.

I read in the newspaper today that you were found dead on the scene of some a drunk driving accident, drowning in a pool of your own blood, and I nearly laughed because finally the bloodshed you caused was over.

~

I opened a book today
and then it opened me

Tracing the outline of her face
On a photograph she’d given me once
What now seems like so very long ago
Smoothing out the torn corners
As I once smoothed out her wild hairs
Ignoring the fading colors
Trying to remember just the way she felt
Running a finger from her chin to her cheek
Examining the crease of her smile
Before gently pressing fingers to
The two small beauty marks beside her nose
You can barely notice the one
But I’ll never forget it
I can recall every detail so perfectly
As if we had never even been apart
But it’s been ages now and I’m not sure
If my memory still serves me right
That’s why so often these days
I pull this picture free
From the folds of my wallet
And gaze at it for hours
Photo paper so worn and glossless now
Grown thin from the countless times
I’ve sat and traced that beautiful face
Only to do it a thousand more
Until there’s holes in this photograph
And my memory of her is all that remains

I used to be a thief
Stealing through the woods
The stars were all that saw me
Your chair ever rocking
From where I used to sit
Where I will never sit again
Memories of the old hammock
A place I will also never see again
Now the moon shines streaks of silver
Reminding me of you
Your head, your eyes, your lips, your nose
I see them all reflected
As clearly as could be
In this wild forest
There is only me and you
The sky, deep red
Fog makes it hard to see
It’s not your heart I stole, I realize
As I see it’s you I hold