The Blood & The Bones

he makes me crave an unfamiliar kind of intimacy
it’s what people would know as wholesome, I believe
dinners at the same table, an embrace at the door
traditions and voices that are never ruined in anger
I think most just call it normal
but I was taught fear and self soothing
to be rarely seen and never heard
to look for signs of indignation in every
set of eyes that meet mine
should I punish him for this
by attempting to love him
in all the ways unversed and foreign
to a girl who was taught
to keep pleas for forgiveness
on the tip of her tongue
for just being human

the blood
& the bones