I've been scratched and pinched and bruised
but none of those things came from you.

I would let your fingers
into my shirt
to carve pictures
into my back
with your nails,
and I would guess
your drawings
as a game.
You would always veer
from the mole, but
sometimes you
would accidentally
scratch it;
I would
always apologize.

I gave you my body like a ***
I gave you answers you desired to know
you only gave insecurities,
making me feel guilty and low.

I begged for our love
admitting my issues with co-dependence
but you laughed at me,
mocked my innocence.

For that I hate you.
I regret you, you *****.
yet you're still that addiction
I have yet to kick.

But know this....

You,
me,
and this feeling,
will be the last scratch
I will allow to itch.

You are as sharp as a knife
When some aren't careful, you could cause them their life
So dangerous yet so fragile and used every day
In the shower, on a hook across from me, you lay

You make me soft as a cloud
Or make me cry out load
You don't last more than 2 weeks
And for the girls that might forget you, get called freaks

So let's please make a deal
And let me express what I feel
If I hold you every night before bed
Don't make my arms and legs turn red

If you've an itchy ***,
Scratch it 'til it brays.

Elephant seals
gross and flabby
ignorant of protocol
ponderously scratch.

Uniformed unicorns
importune
tame peacocks
wearing pink petticoats.

Fluted columns fade
at twilight
into the secrecy
of a passing thought.

Toy soldiers
on parade
fragile, glittering
lost.

Something lives below my skin,
It’s burrowed down, deep within
It burns my body, wearing me thin
And that ***** won’t ever give in

It scrabbles and rives, as I tear me apart
With nails like knives, so close to my heart
I claw at my limbs with fingers that seek
To split open my flesh, the tissue so weak

Blood busts forth as I tear at the itch
As I work hard to get rid of this *****
My nails dyed red, I can not stop now
The need so strong, to exorcise it somehow

Covered in scars, scabbing and sore
As I cry with the pain, limbs ragged and raw
I pause for a moment waiting to see
If it is no longer residing in me

Holding my breath, maybe its gone
If I can’t rid myself of this wrong
This dark demon will drive me insane
But it comes crawling again and again

Something lives below my skin,
It’s burrowed down, deep within
It burns my body, wearing me thin
And that ***** won’t ever give in