Algingu
2023-02-16

***

The need
for protection
is ongoing,
a project
not yet
finished.

I still have my jar
under my bed.
It would protect
me, you said,
whenever I slept.

But it's failed at least twice
when charge has
ran
out,
when hands around my throat
choke
out your name.
And it was too late
when you finally came,
when the Veil relented:
the harm had been sent.

His hair was blackened, fading to blue,
smile poised on lips, pouring out a tune.
I had thought he looked kinda like you,
a version from a happier timeline
where nobody had thought to snuff out your light.

"To think I had thought to make sacrifice
because he had helped me a handful of times
when there was a trinket I had left behind."

*Thank you so much!
Now can you retrieve
the sense of safety
you ripped out from me?*

His hands were so soft
as he cut my breath off.

"Name your price,
you violating piece of shit.
What do you want?
How did my life become
any of your goddamn business?
Did you think this was the price
for the so-called help you rendered?"

When you ask why
I'm afraid
to step outside
our mountain in Sablade,
remember how bloody I was when you came.

Your icy fingers
wrap a bandage
over the ravaged
skin so tender.

***

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (c) Vane Vander
