swallowed corrosion

a poem on choosing corrosion over shame

they taught you to hurt with your

words—

spitting out nails

jagged with corrosion

as they filled

your mouth with an iron infusion,

that bitter taste you have

when your mouth fills with blood

the third time he hit you

and then called it love.

---

and you held each wound

to that slick, scarlet weight behind

fractured bone,

hid pain in a cage and called

it a home.

traced violet blooms

as they stained your skin

and you wore them like armour

but the shame still got in.

---

so you walked into blackness

and it welcomed you there,

tempting you with silence

and a broken heart repaired.

it pooled around your ankles,

your thighs.

then your chest.

you looked to the stars and held

iron to breast.

---

as you swallowed those nails

you once spat out

they flowered into black honey

and filled your mouth.

not to tear your flesh—

instead, kissing your throat.

and the iron—

it weighed you down.

so you could no longer

float.

—

---