i want you to come back to me
healed because i’m selfish & you left
me to wade through the weight of losing
you. i’ve spent so much of my life wrestling
with death & all it has taken
from me.
i pushed through
the silence & the static. the light settled
into my skin when i clawed
my way back. metal tooth ravaging
as i paced along my mind’s
interior.
now i know
no one could keep you. you,
closed-doors & driver’s seat
laughter. you, cold december
& bloodstained
mercy.
Cassidy Black is a psychology student, libra sun, and postcard collector from rural Pennsylvania. Her work has appeared in Rising Phoenix Review, Ghost City Review, and Recenter Press Poetry Journal, among others.