“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. 

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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

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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.

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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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