Once upon a time,

you and all of your kind

lived under the ridges and

grooves of my mind.

Careening the folds and

uploading your endlessly

flowing line of words that

seem to cut and obliterate

the flowers of my mind into

a massacre of compost.

You turned beauty into ugly

with every syllable of

every word, like acid –

you scarred my mind

and left rough behind.

And every night as the moon

read bedtime stories to the

sunlight you took it as an

invitation into my darkness.

Offering nooses and pills –

claiming it was the savior

I so desperately wanted and

so desperately needed.

Praising my suffering,

and poisoning my mind –

you grew an unweeded garden

upon my lobes.

So that when I looked in

a mirror you showed me

poison ivy and

prickles of roses

rather than the

blush of marigolds and

phantom kisses of lilac –

you and all of your kind

distorted my mind –

and now I lay here

waiting and waiting

in the darkness,

for you to appear.