You saw me
Saw me break my fingers
and petrify the pieces
so that your hand would never
fit between them again.

But you forced your fingers through
through the sharp rock that tore flesh
and shards of bone that pierced deep
you held my hand and smiled
A smile fleeting, staying only a second
but a smile that spoke poetry
and paragraphs kept at bay
parts of me I no longer needed
fear, loneliness, pain

But you did not love me for the new
you did not love the words I spoke to other
rehearsed behind routine smiles and laughs
you loved me for scars that hid beneath skin
You called them tattoos
Speaking stories and tales
and you said that made me a painter
and a writer