my truths
scratch your surface
unsettling as nettles
woven through
silken scarves
despite laundering
airbrushing
ironing
they refuse to lie
flat
soft
convenient
conventional
my reality
braids cactus thorns
in cashmere
scores my skin
and yours
my authenticity
abrades
your narrative
grazes sensibilities
brier patch
among cultivated beds
you smell skunkweed
in my budding rose
when we whisper
in the naming
of agony
we birth cockroaches
that scuttle through the walls
dropping diseased
vestiges
on our plates
while we sleep
when we hide
our wounds
under brightly painted
smiling rugs
we are sweeping vermin
into our abodes
incubating infestations
that crawl
among
our naked limbs
when we camouflage
our trauma
dress it prettily
as over-reacting
lacy concoctions
hysterical feminine
leather wiles
we breed amanita
brilliantly toxic
toadstools
upon which we
perch daintly
ankles crossed
when we function
polite
dependable
the rocks
upon which
legions lean
or clean
their dirty boots
day after burdensome day
we step over
rancid feces
rotting
on our thresholds
strewn across our hearths
while
befoulers
scamper off
Arisen from the Conflagraton 