Rotten to the Core

PUBLISHED IN THE RAVEN REVIEW

My outward shell is bright with glaze

Its color mirrored brilliantly

But what they don’t all see inside

Would make them see me differently

I’m rotten to my core, you see

The flesh decaying pus

Their happiness, my jealousy

Ire steaming within the muck

I do not tell them anything

Pride keeps it sewn inside

If they really knew how I felt

I’d much rather have died

Evaporating dust and ash

My blood has lost vitality

Ambrosia poured upon concrete

Destroying practicality

I suffer in silence willingly

Never to be discovered

That loneliness chewed my bones

To a fossil all but smothered

Forgotten and irrelevant

Hope sinks into the ground

Concealing my every shame

As I’m finally unfound

Being alone a siren’s song

That soothes with absolution

The groundwater now welcomes me

Finality in resolution

My goodbye comes with peace

Next priority my home

Watching outside the looking glass

With nowhere left to roam

Guts unfurl with no remorse

My tears my skin my marrow

I cannot hide it anymore

Ah, rotting is such sweet sorrow