what began as a song for darkness Miriam Tomusk i screamed at the darkness and it didn’t flinch so i sang a song about the darkness because i thought it could hear but i guess it must have been deaf or otherwise occupied so i tried to cut through the darkness and i wrestled it to the ground but it rose and swelled and filled me so i wrote a thesis about the darkness even a best-selling novel and the money flew in but i still couldn’t see it so i sewed a garment from the darkness and wore it cloaked in pride hoped every needle puncture would remind it of the pain i too could inflict i mailed the darkness to my best friend it took a while to fold but i did it crammed into an envelope hoping it would arrive intact and then i gave a speech about the darkness so i could pierce it with my voice but when it would not comply i shredded the darkness and knitted from it a blanket to keep me company and then i started to think about how the darkness made me feel but all i really wanted was for someone to turn on the light. ~
LIGHTS ON and I saw myself shattered shards scattered my voice clattered and clamoured echoing in a room where the windows still rattled (echoing in my own hollowness)
from where the darkness fled after it chewed me up and my dry bones bare to the light to be surgically examined.
spattered
My bones with bated breath expected a doctor’s deliberation, accompanying prescriptions that they would have to self-administer —but none came. ~
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