Tender Tortures

 we removed the staples and let the skin fall away. scavengers in costumes of bone and blood.

time told us. bruised by the mechanics of why. actors on a collapsing stage. 

we said the words. our voices corrupted by the arrogance of intent. 

brief intersections where the flesh has sovereignty.

we collected our grief. in nickels and dimes. betrayed by the generosity of strangers. 

the names are forgotten. their faces long gone. 

still those choices gnaw their way through us.

shattered bridges that still tempt us to cross.