The ink?
The ink is the tears
For a mourning writer
Who found refuge in writing.

The ink,
A black stained scars
From a writer's heart
Who carve their thoughts in blank pages.

The ink...
It serves as a photograph
From a writer's mind
Through pen and paper.

The ink
Is like a paint,
The brush is the pen and
The canvas is the paper.

i.
pluck the aching out of my ribs — one by one
as though they were teeth that had sunk —
latched themselves onto these bones,
until it is but a pile of bite marks,
a pile of mildewed flowers —
festering like sins, like punishment.
pluck each bruising bone,
some things belong to my chest.
some, to firelight.

ii.
pluck a rib,
make the sweetest, purest, brand new woman —
all lace girdle and nectarine lips,
stepping out of the outskirts of my skin
as i watch from the other side of an exit wound — the inner side.
maybe in another life, that can be me.

thou shalt not covet.

i close the window.
i zip the skin.

iii.
tonight, i kneel in a confessional —
screaming away all banal sorrows,
screaming away all banal sins.

pull the aching out of my ribs —
it's in its rawest just before the dawn.
pull the aching out of my ribs.

a corrupted sight
for awakened flowers. ringing church bells. hummingbirds.
oh, a corrupted sight.
and mornings will hear its aftermath.

All my poems were letters to you that I wish I could say,
Hoping that by chance you would stumble upon my page and read them all someday.
And then you would remember the girl who showed you how to love,
Remember the girl that went way above and beyond.

But that never happened and now you’re all gone,
The only memory you took with you is that I am strong.