Mind or Body? Blood or Bone.

Is this numbness a shell, or a spike?

A weapon or armor?

It's grown from my chest without warning, but

I can't tell if it's made of bone or blood.

Which would be easier to prune?

Blood is soft, but impossible to sever

at least not completely.

One can stand outside and look at the red weed that's grown through the roof of your house but

can't do much about it

aside from spraying a little poison on it and hoping it will die soon.

(and I don't have any poison, anyway. You have to go out and buy that.)

Bone I've severed before.

It seems instantaneous but

it's more like a crack in the windshield on a cold day

slowing spreading across your vision until it blinds you

and then it falls

like a tree in a forest

or a pillar in an earthquake

and it takes a lot of you with it;

digs it out of the ground

and makes you bleed

grotesquely from the heart

and grow back from a shriveled shell.