Outside

in her dream
he was so quiet as he
pulled the knife from her drawer
her top left dresser drawer
......dizzy blink
they were in the bathroom
tape across the door and bare stark lights
and her eyes drew to
the thin
thin line of blood down his arm
her stomach twisted her heart heaved
while he drew bright perpendiculars across his arm with her knife
the design, a mm thick and a foot long,
dripped to the tiles
and he took his nail so careful
pulling -- separating skin from flesh
like she peeled the bark off a twig that time
do you remember?
i do, because your skin came off so soft
just the way the bark skin did
(but wood doesn't bleed)
and you know your day's gonna be bad when
you wake up with bittersweet
blood-taste in your mouth.

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