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Bound, bending and bowing,

Lurching and spitting.

My splitting body was waiting for you always,

Is chained to you always.

Stretched and bloody and torn

In exquisite submission

To your needs above mine.

 

Before it was born, 

my body was already spoken for

   -     It was already given to you.

Bound to unsafe nights and red-stained sheets

And aggression and dismissal - for you.

 

And then you came

Sucking and leeching and growing fat

And I was full yet invisible.

A jam jar scraped and scrubbed

And boiled until I was clean enough to hold you

And then forgotten.

 

But you came regardless and I,

Gripping and crying and hot towels adjacent,

Was so happy to see you.

But as I look at your wrists

I see chains where others see puckered red flesh.

I see that you are bound too.

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