The Blood & The Bones

you may deny it to anyone

above all

to self

we know that pretending

is indeed

the most elemental form of

survival

but I know

that I was made from the ivory bone

God stole

to give mercy to the lonely

I have lived

in the space

between your

ribs

so you cannot purge

yourself

of me completely

without sacrificing

the saint of a man

you so often confessed

that you’d never have been

if not

for loving

a sinner

like me

the blood

& the bones