Teeth

I held onto you by my teeth.

Enamel tearing, bone chipping.

My friends stare in horror at the blood pouring from my maw,

wounds from a year ago that barely started to scar biting back.

I stand in the pool of it, shaking.

They tell me the wrong you did to me.

The wrong you continue to do.

The wrong my body was aware of when id flinch and bow like a beaten dog away

from joking flailing hands.

The way I would submit to anything you asked of me so I cant even use it against you,

because I let you treat me that way.

Yet around your body in my jaw, I shake my head profusely.

You wouldn't. You couldn't.

You would rejoice in my anguish. Flourish in my floundering. Barely blink at my distraught.

Jokes like barb wire left your lips saccharinely sweet with a smile, so I barely felt the honeyed prongs of metal in my skin.

Until you kept digging. The wounds kept bleeding. The honey was diluted by my pain,

until it was all I could taste.

Losing you was painful. I see you every day, and yet I don’t know you. You look at me with hatred. I look at you like I never knew you.