Title card
The central illustration is of two naked women are sitting on leaves on the branches of a tree. One naked woman is settled on the base of the tree. They are surrounded by flowers. The trunk of the tree is made of branches that bear thorns and flowers.
in a room i do not know
joining worn paths and shifting sands
gazes tracing the door mat, the window curtain
stains ragged and tight underfoot
like the memory of home sinking
like trust held in veil
like narrow yellow bleeding through the mesh
rain tree out bends close
its limbs dust the walls
it breathes like it knows me
i let the firewater wash over me
let my chuckles consort with theirs
a knot of sounds
this delicate space
my toes on the rug's rim
pretend i am safe here
my eyes swimming in the mist
his hands turn, their borders blur
no intense, something close to it
fingers squeezing too hard
body that shrinks
his laughter in thick air suffocating
body that pulls away but falls flat
words like stones in my mouth
come closer
the walls tuck around fast
his jaws grind down on mine
enthusiastic, embarrassing, bruising,
shoving until my lips bulge,
heat scattering in the flesh oblivious of this weight
a fallen rain tree
a weight i didn't ask for
my body a bust with crevice forming
words laid under his mouth
my lips searing like something i can't swallow
body that stands static
smothered with silence
a stone breathing, barely
thoughts of trust
flimsy cord stretched slim
trust him
it pierces my jaws, tastes like splintering timber
his fingers on my neck
digging like thorns
instructing
tightening me
a fist ending on softness
i don't flow, don't stumble
body that is hollowed out
vacant it should scream
does not
his hand lands on my neck, a shot i can't feel
body that is stern
hurting under bruises i won't see
riddles curl and straighten
snake biting its own tail
guilt slimes: the thief of the night
plunging into the notches he's made
of the rain tree, of its limbs bending in a way I cannot
i close my sights
relapsing to the memory of its quiet
if i were a branch, i would bend away
body that is a city clown
sealing the spaces where he does not listen
stay in short enough
spineless humming
legs that found ground
feet striding back
body that lifts me out of his reach where the wind flows free
handles metal freezing versus heat that boils
body that stumbles
breath creeping around my throat
i let the night's quiet invasion
blunt open air, a lotion for skin stretched tight
curtains lurch like hands offering
more delicate
outside, without walls
air devouring my steps as i walk
each stride a sliver of my being
returned
leaving beyond the bruises
