i flick the syringe glass shivering
bubbles popping quiet fireworks
beneath flesh her body trembles
soft with old scars & calcified survival
i stretch fingers taut against buttocks
bruised & split i knead deep
into calloused shell needle tunnels
subdermal rupture blood beads a dark pearl
down her thigh she thanks me
like it was kindness to shoulder her son’s burden
she asks me to pen her memoir
story stitched from trauma &
cheap perfume how i came to love her
as much as i loved him she wanted to will me
her corset collection lace & leather
boned decay the weight
of forced motherhood now she’s gone
cancer’s cold teeth gnawing at flesh
we couldn’t save her son with
another woman a daughter to love
the throb of his mother’s body turned
fever dream