Chokers

Fingers grasping my neck

Hands ready to close in

You don’t want me to breathe

You never did

I try my best to push you off of me

But you’re too heavy

I kick, I thrash, I scratch

But it’s not enough

Let me go

Please, just let me go

You’ll never hear from me again

I swear by it

You don’t want it, you don’t need it

Even with my palm pressed against the Bible

Promising you every last inch I can offer

You only grip tighter

Shoulder Rub

ten minutes after the solar eclipse of 2017

a famously familiar face met mine

i was well acquainted with those wrinkles

from the screen, the books, and the shows

but i hadn’t met him before

what are you supposed to do

when someone tells you that you are broken

and that they are the only one that can fix you

he promised his supernatural touch would enlighten me

and i would be free from

the grasping claws of my previous life

his wizened hands met my shoulders

setting off chills of electricity through my nerves

at first i thought he had woken me up

and i had finally seen the light

and then i realized

his fingers were just wet

and dripping water down the back of my shirt

Arthritis

Alanah is getting arthritis in her knees

Or so she says

I think there’s more to the story

TELL. ME. WHY.

would a young girl of only 17 years

Innocent in demeanor

Blind to the evils of the world

Outside the four walls

Of her pastel pink bedroom

Be plagued by this illness

The disease of her elders

Something’s not right here…

Tattoos

You’re no longer the boy

Who spent months coaxing me off

The edge of a wall

I spent years building up