perception

perception

She took the first blow to her eye swollen fat and round,
and as she walked around with a bent picture for her view
she leaned a little into the ache maybe-
or toward the sun I’m not sure which.

if it were sarcasm, perhaps her bones would not have snapped;
but with
each blow ‘ the seriously she takes herself’
chipped away at what she knows and hospitality
became a four letter word for done

She showed up a bit emaciated
from starving for something honest
feeding on the crumbs of efforts unmet

she walked along on the road to ‘why’ for a few miles
and I found her at my door-
looking a bit mangled from her inner war

As I bathed her clean, she quipped, “But you should see the other guy”

I imagined him upright in a chair bound
but with his tongue cut out for his misuse of a well landed word
that for years she had taken like friendly fire-

I wanted to nurture her like a mother,
pull the covers up under her chin and watch her sleep-
be it to dreams of 'the battle at friend’
and while there is blood in the water and she grasps a knot of his hair in her fist
She will still have an ear for your gifts, be them music or your truth

She told me,
“ There is a hole in my lip-
my perception spills from it like a breaking damn."

and she slept.

-amy lynn
july 18, 2008