silver eyes stare at me from the vanity
I smile at their pain

ripping a curse through my lips.

a reflection of my mother's work,
me.
My sordid story begins with
nails pinned to joints, pain
swallow the herb of grace
a sermon
"shed light on your life and
live, breathe, bleed"
bleed
blood all over my tile floor
and I rest

melting into the crimson clods littering the floor

and I pray

my body will be my own again

she is an incision, germinating
innocent of crime
just like her mother was before...he..
gave me my mother's eyes
undone on the glacial tile floor