i used to think poetry was alliteration,
assonance, rhyme and rhythm
literary devices like onomatopoeia

but then i found the number of people
who wrote poetry about love
hurt, pain, brokenness
numbness

then i realised
poetry was simply being touched by you
being cut up and forced
to live with bleeding wrists and
a bleeding heart

the blood left on the sheets
that's what poems are made of