YOUR LEG IS ON FIRE BUT I SAW A SUNSET your grin stretched from ear to ear as I rambled about my day your voice a comforting cloud that kept me calm at bay but your hip would ache, uncontrollably quake yet you kept smiling for my sake and didn’t say a word. your leg is on fire, but i saw a sunset. all the dark nights when i couldn’t fall asleep i didn’t even see you weep only noticing your rays spreading far and wide enveloping me in a blanket of your arms an eloquent orange a furious red a compassionate pink your leg is on fire, but i saw a sunset. how did I not see the spark of the flare at your bone, or how your leg hardened to stone? your leg is on fire, but i saw adid I not see the blaze getting worse, etched onto you like a curse, why didn’t I take care of you first? your leg is on fire, but ithe skin around your tender hip screeches as the scorching flames replace the crimson in your veins, claiming them as theirs the heat devours your brittle bone within a beat little by little until every part sizzles like an overused cigar, your tissues blacken to char your leg is on fire, mama.
Poem by Sanya Grover Art by Peri Ren
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