(predator)

I’ll feed off myself, with this knife
(please leave me be)
And drain all my blood, the life.
(please, please make me free)

I’ll play you every song I know…
(your precursors, oh little bee)
Scraped and snared, a smiling glow!
(please stick your stinger into me)

And with your venom in my veins,
(as you writhe in lethal postpartum, see)
A murder-suicide you had often feigned.
(somehow the reds of this wound won’t bleed)

(parasite)

And as I continue to suck myself dry,
(until I’m little more than waste)
I’ve learned the wonderful, terrible secret:
(called going it alone – solo ipsemet)
I’m finally getting the hang of it!
(bit by bit by bit by bit by bit)
So you can just take your sweet time.
(take your sweet smile, your sweet gaze)

Take your sweet kisses,
(your sweet bed)
and keep them leagues away.
(keep them shed)
like
skin
you
snake

(princess)

Beloved,

If in negative space you can see me
(in other words, read in-between the parallel lines)
You might perceive a recurring image of medical trauma
(of blood, of flat-lines, of menisci, of a warm womb)
Oh, treacherous veins betray this self-murderous stone
(if it could just stop beating: stop beating)
Long enough to suck you out of me
(and once a mouth-full, spit you out)
I want you out of my system so that I can call you:

Beloved.