each broken bone in my body
has repaired itself reinforced

steel
adamantium
rock and lead

compassion coiled tightly
around a clenched fist
because giving yourself
to anybody who asks
and getting ******* back
can weigh you down

and every lie
each one of them
sang to me
bore my second mutation
calloused skin,
toughened heart

hardened
calcified
reinforced and fossilized

even though I mention your names,
for the first time in my life
I am writing
about myself