healing


i wash your fingers out of my knotted hair,
rid your bitter taste from my lips, and
scrub my barren skin with fine sea salt,
until the bottle has been emptied,
until every inch of 
you has left my body

for you have bruised my bones,
infested me with your virus,
planted a cancerous seed in the 
cracks and crevices of my hippocampus

and i will continue to clean this mess that you left for me,
sanitize every part of me that you touched,
until i no longer feel your hands 
on my sweet smooth skin

raphaellalaurence

CA

19 years old

More by raphaellalaurence

  • In the Palms of My Hands

    The sand that coats the ground
    holds the shape of the wind
    It's all beige and blue 
    until the moon rises and the stars compile a brief glimpse of the Milky Way

    Every day I watch them die
    in the palms of my hands
  • A bed for vivid dreams

    I took a bath in my own golden light
    and watched a smile grow upon my face
    as I adventured on my own, into the forest near my house.

    I felt at home and found myself on the earth's floor looking up into a sky of movement,
  • the forest creatures

    ​along the banks of creeks and streams, 
    sleeping beneath just inches of soil,
    sucking on the roots of willow trees and the
    sap strewn from a mid-march maple tree,
    nested in the wooden wands of an ancient redwood,