Think real hard

You best not forget

Some red that’s left

Off with the showerhead.

 

I sometimes forget all the people I saved and vice versa

But I never forget the stories I’ve spoken in tongue you’ve never heard of.

 

And now I remember nails pressed into skin

With your mouth wide open and spit rolling in.

 

I saw verses printed into ribcages and necks

And Shakespearian lines in bloodied text

And eyes turned sapphire from accumulating sleep debt

And the only story I know word-for-word is one she read.

 

The chemicals feel less funny now that they leave and return

In accordance with weather and how the pages rip when the turn

When a new chapter starts, and you think the previous burned

But this scene I’ve never seen is described with the same words.

 

And my eyes often twitch whenever I read

How others write the same sentences that I bleed

And now the lingo’s detached and energy snatched

They don’t treat these words well

They can’t spell how I see.