The Revenant

A reenactment of purity

Smothers me - I am

Skin and bones, wrapped up

In a hospital gown

I am bald and blood-bathed,

Unstitched and open

Eating tomato soup and mothballs

This is how it goes:

They find you again,

Screaming,

Slicing your flesh like cake,

Shaving your head as if you were shedding the skin of your past self

Thinking you had killed her last time,

(As if you couldn’t protect her)

Thinking you have died too often

For your own death not to count

(As if it ever meant anything more

Than a statistic)

They explain to you,

The world doesn’t need you now,

Maybe you should take a break?

And they send you here,

Where the people want you to be

Vistaril, white, iodine

And you tell them,

If god is real,

They don’t believe in me