Your hands had become a comfort to me,
So when you pressed them to my chest
I wasn’t afraid.
But you didn’t stop
At my skin,
You pushed through my flesh,
Bent my ribs back
Like wire,
And pulled my heart out.

You dropped it on the ground,
Repulsed,
As if it were a spider,
Or some other unsightly pest.

I healed my chest without it,
Sewed up my flesh,
Because I didn’t want you to see me
Break myself more
Trying to fit it back into
The grotesque cavity.

It hurts more without it.

I tried to swallow it down
With my pride,
Down,
Down,
Down,
The dark well.
So at least it would be safe inside me.

It lives now as a lump in my throat
That I feel constantly
And won’t go away.