I could tell you how every bit of you flashed before my eyes as we met that very first night,
But how can I explain the way our souls met and fought while my heart thought it was love,
How can I explain the many thoughts that trickled into my head as your fist connected with my jaw and the scream that ripped through me.
What can I say to the mother that raised me who said to never let a man hit me but my god I'd let you do anything to stay because
You're
All
I
Know.
when did I start to believe the lies you fed to me by your hand as the other gripped my thigh and my heart whispered, "This is love."
What led you to use your anger amongst me like an angry pen furiously scratching across a page when the ink runs out because neither the paper or the pen can no longer bare the force put upon either.
What made me to be so submissive to the peppered bruises across my tan skin like purple stains on a linen sheet that you just can't wash out because how can you wash out the memory of something so powerful it
Never
Leaves.
You do it again because the power you hold over me is greater than the cries I let out or the blood that trickles from the wounds you make that stain the carpet because I let you.
I shiver in your wake.
Please, I beg of you, let me die.

My words drip colors:

They do not breathe
Through consonants and vowels;

They do not seethe
With passion or sorrow;

They do not aim like arrows;
They do not trip on talons.

My words make chaos:

They overfill
My bones and marrow;

They slip and spill
Through cracks so narrow;

The raising of an eyebrow;
The mumble through a mouthful.

My words come back to me:

They find release in hands and fists,
(that hit and hit and hit)

They seek reprieve in tears and drinks,
(that drip and drip and drip)

They bloom like flowers
(not on my lips as I speak -
but upon elbows and knees)

My words drip colors, and so color me.