—SUDDENLY EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED HAS PASSED ME BY

 

Unsealed

 

You said we were a complicated tree, too many elbows and hangnails, lips bark-encrusted, a lizard dangling in your throat. 

When I said, “I think I still love you,” your branches drooped like an old man’s scrotum and a swarm of wasps tattooed my mouth, several burying their stingers in my eyes, like an oath that was never meant to be unsealed.