to be raw and bloody elegance

to expose flesh under dainty fingertips

to sweat the daily two cent sense

to sow and sew and reap and rip

to measure to all the measures a woman was ever measured

to then conquer all ideas of man as well

to pack away the paper walls of people quite assured

to be the girl that ascended, flew, but never fell

to search for not reigning gold, nor raining silver, but working bronze

to know to taste the sweet in stars and the blood in salt

to somehow be queen and bishop and knight and pawn

to never faint at heart for those who never faint at fault

As the dark night falls

I look inside a strange soul

Just to see, lurking

There, barely hidden

A monster I recognized

None other than me

I reached inside it

Digging amidst the shrill screams

To dig from deep in

To rip it all out

And just as night falls again--

I wake up, covered

In sweat and in blood

My heart outside in a glass

A rotten heart of

Black monsters and all

The things that we have feared, now

Sinking into me

As I scream, unheard

By a loud, ignorant world

The demons inside

Claw their way outside

The remains of a young boy

Emerging in a

Scattered, painful cry