PURGE

I've got to purge myself of this obsession

This affection

For you.

Birth the child that never was

In waves of warm blood and agony

Rip its umbilicus from my heart

Where you planted it in too-fertile soil

Ever so delicately

With your long-lashed autumnal eyes,

Your perfect smile,

Your passion and gentleness,

You.

I loved you before I touched you,

Was worse for the wear after,

Wanting every lover to be you, your calloused hands on me.

In a crowd, a thousand possibilities of you.

If you had wanted me, taken me to your breast

And loved me straightaway,

Could that potent elixir have cured my heart,

Preventative medicine

For the growth, benign or malignant,

That now overshadows it?

I feel it writhing in my chest, in my soul.

It's alive.

Alive.

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