It (#Wattys2016)

bitter cores

You.

You taught me how bitter hearts didn't always

Mean bitter people.

How beneath their crooked eyebrows and

Wrinkled, sweaty shirts

How within their restless chests and

Blackened, crumbling hearts

There breathed an angel.

Though wingless,

Though frowning,

Though tainted,

Though drowning,

There breathed an angel nonetheless.

One overturned by

The tides of an ocean so red

With the blood of competition

And cutthroat rivalry.

And one overwhelmed by

Life's hard, heavy punches

That sent one reeling

Writhing in pain.

One dead and rotten.

One lost - forgotten.

One bloody and lost,

Eaten by frost

And guilty memories.

You.

You taught me how bitter hearts didn't always

Mean bitter people.

But in this case,

It seems,

You've gotten it all wrong instead.