when she left, she took:
the air
the warmth
the light
the hope
the years following marked by:
the tears
the pain & mud
the clawing & scrambling & scraping
the war
his breast thereafter blemished by:
the scar from heart to navel
the infections
the ice fire burning cold
that which despised sleep
born from the back end of his misery:
he couldn’t bloom
saw through people
his muscles got huge
& he wielded the power to destroy