Hoarsely screaming down the barrelled street
night digests the wails I birth
this urgent drive pumps wildly
from crotch through chest to cranium
tears me clean in half
in flames for your name tattooed upon my lungs

Why do you not see me here
burning like this
why do you choose not to see me
burning for you like this

Barely able to draw breath between
the overwhelming thud of my heart
and the crushed ribs of all this tension
from sock through skeleton to scalp
breaking me clean in half
catching fire with every vision

Why do you not see me here
burning like this
why do you choose not to see me
burning for you like this

And you walk down the charcoal-veiled street
past the fire that I am, without seeing
decided, resolutely, not to see me
but I see you, for the first time clearly
lit by these flames, I see you so vividly
so cruel
so cruelly
mocking me…

(March 2015)