When kindness ensnares me I'll chew off my foot
And cauterise with searing cruelty
The veins, the nerves, the skin that holds me down.
I will breathe the smoke of human crackling
Deep into my lungs against false memory,
And when in days to come I'm offered peace
With loving fables of bridges unburnt
The scent of burning skin, the taste of ash
Will force my fingers open, releasing
Cheap comforts and those traitorous stories
We tell ourselves to excuse our failures.
For lizardinlaw, for no particular reason. Apologies to jyossarian for using your words.