l a n g u a g e s

75 15 11
                                    

i finally updated!! and thank you so much for 4.9k reads and 1.1k votes!!! i really, really appreciate it. sending all my love.

also, this poem is a bit long. oops. 

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i haven't yet learned

the language of my pain

that speaks not in words

but in throbbing aches

rooted deep inside

like weeds with a heartbeat


i haven't yet learned 

the language of my pain

that tells nothing of

my wounds

or how to trace them

back to the blade

and to who

wielded it before,

and if i am more

than this soul sadness

that even music

and its gentle hands

can't pick apart

with glissandos 

and grace notes


i haven't yet learned

the language of my pain

or how to understand

the hurt that heals

without a scar

and how it should be

remembered

when there's no proof

of it ever existing.

was it ever there

if the crimson only spilled

against the ivory bones

inside

and never stained the ground

beneath your feet?

can a healed wound

without a scar

ever be forgotten

if i keep falling back

into memories

--the quicksand of them

holding on to me

and letting time

do the killing

in between the hours

of hushed midnight

and crowing dawn--

getting hurt

over and over,

trying to understand

what went wrong

and how love

became a language

i did not recognize,

and how pain

became as familiar

as my mother tongue,

how sewing myself

back together

took longer

than when you

ripped me apart,

severing my soul

into two,

taking half of me away

when you left

and set our forest

ablaze

with the matches

you kept between your teeth--

but first you waited

until i have forgotten

the burn of a fire,

the taste of ash

on my trembling lips

that only remember 

sweetness

not soot


only then did you

bring the flames

to the haven,

only then did i mourn

the language of our love

in the leaves,

only then did i hear

the foreign words of pain,

watching your wildfire

consume us and the underbrush

with fiery breath,

and there are not 

enough words in the world

to contain it


what hurts most

is that no one saw

the smoke


love,

mari

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