
“Skin deep, we carve our immeasurable sorrow in the fold of your shivering arms…”
—Dark Tranquillity
When the mirror’s cracked pane slits a hole
In your visage, and twists with untruth
Your contorted taut innards—when hate
Carves your core to a festering pulp,
And you deem yourself culpable—what
Can you do, but encircle that void
With your own empty arms, and recall
The dissembler who’d preyed on your trust?
He’d alleged you’d be safe if you pledged
Secret love, so you’d choked down his lust.
Yet, in yielding, you’d swallowed yourself.
Now a silver-tongued knife on your desk
Glibly glints, and his blade courts your lack:
Such a chivalrous prince! And you want
Nothing more than his serrated kiss,
Because this is your unspoken truth:
Pain impairs your gap’s growth, veils the hole
That you harbor, and steel lovers’ licks
Always quell self-hate’s hunger. You croon
To him: Honey, they’re playing our song...
And that blade, sidling closer, unzips
Epidermis; he strips bare your arm
From your wrist to your radius. Skin
Now flayed back, severed arteries pulse.
You re–glance in the mirror, this dance
Just begun, fully rapt with pain’s bliss
And the whole you’ve become.
About the Author
Mindy Watson is a Washington, DC-based formalist poet/writer who holds an MA in Nonfiction Writing from The Johns Hopkins University. Her poetry appears or is forthcoming in Autumn Sky Poetry, Clementine Unbound, Eastern Structures, Ekphrastic Review, Literary Hatchet, Lonesome October Lit, Midnight Lane Boutique, Palettes & Quills, Quarterday Review, Red River Review, Snakeskin, Star*Line, Think Journal, and Winamop. You may read her poetry and prose at: https://mindywatson.wixsite.com/poetryprosesite
About the Artist
Arushi Gupta is a 22-year-old alien studying to be a dentist in Chandigarh. She is
a die-hard otaku and wishes to go to Japan soon. You can find her singing Japanese songs, making some artsy concoction or taking weird photographs in the streets of Chandigarh.
You can find her works here.
Whole is part of the weekly poem publications from the literary collection The Machinery. You can submit your poetry and fiction here.
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Nice article … Thanks for sharing …keep posting
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A fierce piece of verse, and beautifully crafted.
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Reblogged this on Fictionspawn Monsters.
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Wow, I loved that it was so amazingly written check out my bites there are fresh ones I wrote.
I love all your work
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“Skin
Now flayed back, severed arteries pulse.
You re–glance in the mirror, this dance
Just begun…” Well, I can feel that pain. That cuts deep.
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