for a season, you were all i ate
i drank in your attention
i lived in your world
i danced to the rhythm of your heartbeat
your words were the only thing sustaining my cells
splitting me apart, not caring if anything new came to life
turning my blood to poison in my veins
a blade between your lips
cutting into me,
swearing the Hippocratic Oath
but leaving only scars,
blood
screaming
bloody
hell
in your wake
i hid the corpse you left in the ground
i stayed silent and soon you left me for dead
for death
the creatures of the earth burrowed into my skin, eating the rot you left behind
turning me and toiling, birthing me without a thought of criticism
i felt nothing, your touch was the only language my skin spoke
and your death throes licked like flames at my feet
your death throes bound my wrists behind my back, the beam you nailed me against the only
support for my withered backbone
that death felt like a cloud gathered and every rumbling was a judgment from heaven
every strike of lightning to kill me dead
this death was warm, a blanket of dirt,
oh god, it’s tickling my toes! i feel it.
new, lively things are springing out of me, slowly, kindly, tenderly
this death is a whispering of the dust
a “Let there be life”
it’s raining, the birds are flying low, bringing songs to welcome me back earthside
As I deliver myself from the grave,
The struggle back has left me torn
Yet all I’m bleeding now is
Water from a spring I found beneath
Grey Oletsa