Cancerous Memories

Cancerous memories

and the therapy makes you sick

but you still slip between its sheets

if forgetfulness has promised to befriend you

when you have given every

         aching

ounce

        of you

and your blood flows

        only

when they speak

and your oxygen

         is the heat

of their fingers’ breath

on the

glass

          of your skin

and when the

sleep that you dream

comes awake

in their eyes

sabotage is the only escape

when he takes the fragile fetus

of you

and tears it from its home inside his ribs

when he burns

the cord that ties

sharp scissor snap

and charcoal burns

and casts

it into worlds unknown

the pain can only come with a drowning of the

thing that holds the memory

I had to carve through

nerve and sinews

force frail hands to

pry apart the

cartilage and bone

that had attached

me to you

and then somehow

regenerate
the
leftover scraps
that
had been made
of my heart