From His Side

Catalog it. Write it down:
compare my tongue to a scalpel
and expound on how it wounds you,
slices open your skin with a swift
slash. Describe my face, tell all
those who read your poems that it’s
a face you have tried – and failed –
to love for what it lacks. Use metaphors,
make me a weasel, a boar, the snake
who slithers at your feet, binds
your ankles and holds you here.
Call yourself a war-zone refugee,
a broken soldier finally going home.
Whatever you do, don’t include the rest
of the truth: you are the one who left;
you closed the door. I was here,
waiting, wanting, waiting.


Rachel Bunting is a born and bred South Jersey girl who is currently learning to live outside the Pine Barrens. Her poems can be found in Edison Literary Review, Mad Poets Review, Journal of New Jersey Poets and the online journals Wicked Alice and The Barefoot Muse. She is a dedicated fan of British bands from the 80s and is a terrible dancer.