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 a

did 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 i

the 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.