courage

 

rage

 

empty light on peeling skin

 

spilling fat and gritty with salt

 

voluptuous licks of oil sliding

 

into my guilty pores, sponges of sin 

 

long, red, broken fingernails tear strips from my glory, purity

putrid chastity

 

flames kiss my ankles, thighs, plunging into dark, moist curtains

 

burning flesh

 

the bile lurching at my tongue tastes like chocolate 

 

the wind lapping at my smoking edges the heavy gasp of sex 

 

I curl inward, a thin paper crumbling into ashes

 

shame thick and lascivious as pudding 

 

eaten up by fire

 

the glorious destruction

 

combustion

 

purges it

 

turning nauseating desire 

 

into cool air

 

brushing back sweaty hair

 

in righteous relief