there is a child beneath your skin

the child hiding under your skin

has poison frothing

beneath her fingernails

for your lungs crush her tight

and your throat wishes

to swallow her whole

but the more you fight

the more she drowns

the more she pulls you with her

mind shuddering with tremors of an aftershock

reduced to roman ruins

begging for you to release her

but you take her hope

and demolish that, too